Two more works from Benjamin Britten, composed specifically for Rostropovich. The composer and the cellist had met through their mutual friend Shostakovich, in 1960, and developed a friendship and musical collaboration. These two suites, composed clearly in the style of Bach’s works for solo cello, were written in 1964 and 1967 respectively.
They were not only dedicated to “Slava”, but they also had features that could only be played by the Russian cellist. Rostropovich had big hands, and Britten created double stops and fingerings that only he was able to do. He also exploited Rostropovich’s fine bow control by adding long breath-like phrases, that had to sound like a speech pattern. Features like these made sure that really only he could play them well, and result in this reference recording of the works.