The Cello Suites of Bach and Britten: History, Form and Performance

Wesleyan University The Honors College

The Cello Suites of Bach and Britten:

History, Form and Performance

Lucy Strother

Class of 2011

A thesis submitted to the

faculty of Wesleyan University

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

Degree of Bachelor of Arts

with Departmental Honors in Music

Middletown, Connecticut April, 2011

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank my cello instructor, Julie Ribchinsky, for being

incredibly supportive and dependable throughout my recital preparations, and for

sharing her deep musical understanding of these pieces with me. Thank you to my

advisor, Jane Alden, for aiding in my research and writing processes. Thank you to

professors Neely Bruce and Yonatan Malin for expanding my knowledge of and

interest in music history and theory.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER 1: PATRONAGE AND FRIENDSHIP 3

CHAPTER 2: EXPLORING THE SOLO INSTRUMENTAL SUITE 14

CHAPTER 3: PERFORMING THE CELLO SUITES 24

CONCLUSION 34

REFERENCES 37

Introduction

My first exposure to Benjamin Britten’s solo cello suites was at a performance

institute I attended a few summers ago in New Hampshire. A fellow student

performed the Marcia from the First Suite, and I was instantly intrigued. The

percussive col legno attacks, coupled with the passages of harmonics evocative of a

distant trumpet call, created a theatricality I had never heard before in music for solo

cello. The movement was just over three minutes long, but employed the use of the

entire cello in a way that fascinated and impressed me.

When I eventually heard the pieces in their entirety (on Matt Haimovitz’s The

Century Cello), I became interested in pairing one of the Britten suites with one

of the cello suites by Johann Sebastian Bach, which I had been studying and

performing for years. This was mainly due to the fact that these were the first pieces I

had encountered that also occupied the genre of solo cello “suite.” I immediately

ordered the sheet music.

Initially, I imagined that Britten was inspired solely by the Bach suites when

he composed his own unaccompanied pieces. But when my Faber Music edition

arrived, I opened the music to discover a page with a reproduction of Britten’s

scrawling dedication, “For Slava.” Recognizing “Slava” as the nickname for cello

virtuoso Mstislav Rostropovich, I began to realize that there were more nuances to

this project. I had envisioned a straightforward comparison between the Britten and

Bach suites, but my research uncovered a much more complex and touching story

behind each of these pieces. Britten’s beautiful and erratic works were without a

doubt inspired by Bach, but more importantly, they were gifts from Britten to one of

his dearest friends.

There isn’t much Britten scholarship concerning the Suites specifically.

Sources I was able to find focused on the innovative cello technique the pieces

require, or analysis of their Russian elements and influence.

A comparison between

Britten and Bach’s cello suites seems to me natural and inviting, so it is somewhat

surprising that scholars haven’t yet elaborated on this connection. This thesis takes as

its purpose then to examine the circumstantial situations that brought about both the

Bach and Britten cello suites, what this musical form meant to each composer, and

the complications of studying and performing these pieces. My first chapter posits

that there are hitherto unremarked-upon similarities in the circumstances that brought

about these two sets of suites, despite the very different careers of Bach and Britten.

The second chapter focuses on each man’s relationship with the genre of “suite.” The

third chapter will examine performance issues that arise when preparing these pieces,

focusing specifically on the sixth Bach suite and first Britten suite, which I performed

back to back in my thesis recital.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hsieh, Hui-Ju. Britten's most Russian tribute to Rostropovich: The Cello Suite No.

3, Opus 87. DMA Dissertation, Boston University, 2007.

Chapter 1:

Patronage and Friendship

How does the context in which Bach wrote his unaccompanied cello suites

circa 1720 compare to that in which Britten composed his own cello suites in the

early 1960s? What commonalities and differences characterize the compositional

methods of each man? I will argue that Baroque composers are more accurately

described as craftsmen than artists, limited in their creative decision-making by royal

patronage, whereas 20

century composers had much more artistic autonomy. Britten

dedicated works to important figures in his life for deeply personal reasons. His three

Suites for Solo Cello provide a case in point, since they arose out of his intimate

friendship with virtuoso cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. Bach’s career consisted, for

the most part, of compositions required of him by a given patron at a given time.

Some of these works were dedicated to specific individuals, most famously the

Brandenburg Concertos (dedicated to Christian Ludwig, the Margrave of

Brandenburg), but these dedications related directly to Bach’s employment

circumstances, or to hopes for a future position. It’s wrong, however, to assume that

Bach’s obligations to various patrons dispelled the influence friends and family had

on his work. Despite the great impact of circumstantial elements on Bach’s career, he

too had meaningful personal relationships that inspired and shaped his compositional

output. I will argue that key friendships pushed both Britten and Bach toward

instrumental pieces after predominantly vocal work, despite different approaches to

composition.

Bach, like most composers in the Baroque era, composed mainly in response

to the demand of his employers. Bach’s various appointments often required very

different musical responsibilities. For example, he was first hired in 1703 by the

minor court of Weimar as a violinist, but when he relocated soon after to the town of

Arnstadt, he took the position of church organist. After moving from Arnstadt to

serve as church organist in another town, Mühlhausen, Bach settled into the life of

aristocratic court employment during a ten year stint at the Weimar ducal court,

serving as organist, as well as violinist in the Weimar court band.

It was at Weimar that Bach established himself as a composer, especially by

imitating the style of Italian and French contemporary composers, and he was

eventually promoted to the position of konzertmeister, principal violinist of the court

orchestra.

It is clear that Bach felt restricted by his employment at Weimar; he

desired the position of Kapellmeister, or musical director of the court orchestra,

which would offer a heightened salary and the opportunity to supervise the other

musicians. When the Weimar Kapellmeister died in 1717, Bach was denied the

position. So when he received an offer soon after to become the Kapellmeister at the

court of Cöthen, he was naturally interested and asked permission to leave Weimar.

He was subsequently thrown in the castle jail.

Interestingly, in his book, The Cello

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Siblin, Eric. The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a

Baroque Masterpiece. New York, NY: Atlantic Monthly, 2009. 17-31.

Clive Brown. "Leader." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 13 Mar. 2011

<http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/16178>.

Siblin, The Cello Suites, 26-27.!!

Suites, Eric Siblin cites “an old account handed down from one of Bach’s students”

which states that Bach started his composition of the first book of the Well-Tempered

Clavier while imprisoned at Weimar. Siblin postulates that the striking similarities

between the opening prelude of the WTC and the prelude from the first Cello Suite

could indicate that “Bach quite possibly started writing the first cello suite in jail.”

Although Siblin’s speculation regarding the circumstances surrounding

Bach’s composition of his cello suites is vivid and potentially accurate, it is

impossible to know exactly when Bach wrote these pieces for an equally intriguing

reason: the original manuscript has disappeared. Despite the lack of a hard copy in

Bach’s hand (only a copy in Anna Magdalena’s script survives

), most scholars

estimate that the Suites were composed around 1720, while Bach was in residency at

Cöthen, after his release from the Weimar castle jail.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Siblin, The Cello Suites, 27.

Interestingly, the lack of an existing composer’s manuscript for the cello suites has

led some researchers to believe that Anna Magdalena actually composed the suites

herself, rather than simply copying them. Martin Jarvis, of Charles Darwin

University, discovered in 2008 that the inscription on the earliest manuscript of the

suites reads "Ecrite par Madame Bachen Son Epouse," which translates literally to

“written by…” rather than “copied by…”

Dutter, Barbie. "Bach Works Were Written by His Second Wife, Claims Academic -

Telegraph." Telegraph.co.uk. 23 Apr. 2006. Web. 13 Mar. 2011.

<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1516423/Bach-works-were-written-by-

his-second-wife-claims-academic.html>.

Salleh, Anna. "Bach's Wife May Have Been Composer'" ABC.net.au. Web. 13 Mar.

2011. <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/04/2382049.htm>.!

Bach turned to composition of secular, instrumental works during his

residency at Cöthen, due to the Calvinist religious practices of the court there, which

favored only simple, vocal church music. (Additionally, the lack of an organ in the

small town prevented Bach from composing keyboard works at the same rate.)

Although he consistently wrote instrumental works for keyboard instruments

throughout his entire career, this was the first opportunity for Bach to explore purely

instrumental composition, giving him much more freedom to explore writing for

various, specific instruments.

Although Bach composed mainly in response to the requirements designated

by his employers, I would like to argue that the composition of the cello suites was

only possible due to the freedom Bach enjoyed in his residency at Cöthen, freedom

that was partly due to his close friendship with the young Leopold, prince of Cöthen.

Leopold was an avid supporter of the arts. He was not restrictive of his Kapellmeister

and would have encouraged Bach to experiment with different ensembles and

instruments. Leopold was not only a music lover but an avid performer; he sang and

played the violin, harpsichord and viola da gamba.

Although Bach absolutely fits the stereotype of Baroque composer as

craftsman, his deepest personal relationships still shaped his career and music.

Although the influence of his private life is not as overt or extensively detailed as that

of Britten’s, it is worthwhile to make note of instances in which Bach wrote for the

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!Wolff, Christoph. "Capellmeister in Cöthen, 1717-1723." Johann Sebastian Bach:

the Learned Musician. New York: W.W. Norton, 2000. 192. Print.!

ones he loved, in particular his second wife, Anna Magdalena Bach. Bach’s

relationship to Anna Magdalena was instrumental to his career; she was a skilled

copyist and prepared his compositions for sales and performance. But in addition to

helping out with some of the grunt work involved in Bach’s composition, she was an

accomplished singer and keyboardist and served as a musical confidant for Bach. The

closeness of their marriage and musical partnership resulted in Bach dedicating

musical works for Anna Magdalena, most notably the “Little Keyboard Book for

Anna Magdalena Bach.”

The composition of Benjamin Britten’s cello suites also occurred at a juncture

in which the composer returned to writing instrumental music. Despite composing a

great deal of instrumental music early in his career, Benjamin Britten became a

composer of primarily vocal music in his mature career. This was due in part to the

positive reception of his early operatic works, including Peter Grimes, Billy Budd,

and Turn of the Screw. But this turn towards vocal music can also be attributed to the

friendship and relationship that grew between Britten and tenor Peter Pears, whom

Britten met in 1937. Britten wrote an extensive succession of songs and opera roles

with Pears in mind.

This was just one of many personal relationships that directly affected the

nature and form of Britten’s musical output. Unlike Bach’s compositions, whose form

and instrumentation were directly influenced by the terms of his employment,

Britten’s work was frequently the direct product of a relationship he established with

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Siblin, The Cello Suites, 96-97.

a particular musician or another composer. In a 1964 speech, Britten defended this

habit, stating, “I believe in roots, in associations, in backgrounds, in personal

relationships…I want my music to be of use to people, to please them, I do not write

for posterity.”

Britten’s collaborative work as a pianist and his career as a composer

were symbiotic; many artists he accompanied later became inspirations for a piece.

Arguably, it was one of these personal and musical friendships that led to Britten’s

return to composing substantial instrumental music, most particularly for the cello.

Britten met Mstislav Rostropovich for the first time in September 1960, after

Rostropovich’s performance of Shostakovich’s first Cello Concerto at the Royal

Festival Hall in London. Shostakovich, who had dedicated the concerto to

Rostropovich, invited Britten to attend and introduced him to Rostropovich after the

concert. The cellist almost immediately requested that Britten compose a piece for

him, which eventually took shape in the form of the Cello Sonata in C, completed in

January 1961. The Sonata was followed by the Cello Symphony

(1963) and the

three Cello Suites. Although they could barely understand each other when speaking

(they communicated in a private, hybrid language they called “Aldeburgh

Deutsch”)

, Rostropovich and Britten developed an intense friendship and creative

collaboration that would continue for the remainder of the composer’s life. Britten

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!Ross, Alex. The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century. New York:

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. 412.!

The Cello Symphony, for solo cello and orchestra, is immediately reminiscent of

Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony-Concerto in E minor for cello and orchestra, a work of

a similarly large scale, also dedicated to and premiered by Rostropovich.

Oliver, Michael. Benjamin Britten. London: Phaidon, 1996. Print, p. 169.

also established a strong friendship with Rostropovich’s wife, the soprano Galina

Vishnevskaya. The couple would often spend holidays with Britten; in December of

1965 they celebrated Christmas at Aldeburgh, and the following year Britten traveled

to Moscow to join the couple in celebrating the Russian New Year.

Britten’s developing friendship with Rostropovich was just one of many

fruitful creative relationships the composer shared with instrumentalists. Interestingly,

Rostropovich, too, made a habit of cultivating powerful bonds with numerous

composers throughout his performance career. Gliére’s 1946 cello concerto was the

first piece by an eminent composer to be formally dedicated to Rostropovich; the

young cellist was still a teenager when Gliére noticed and acknowledged his

remarkable talent with this dedication. The Gliére concerto, however, was just the

first in a long series of works dedicated to Rostropovich. Nikolay Miyaskovsky was

the next composer to write specifically with Rostropovich in mind. It was through

Miyaskovsky that Rostropovich met Prokofiev

, who wrote him a Sonata and in turn

introduced him to Shostakovich (who, as mentioned before, introduced him to

Britten).

Rostropovich was the dedicatee and first performer of works by each of

these major composers, as well as an assortment of lesser-known composers.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kennedy, Michael. Britten. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. Print. Master Musicians.

P. 88.!

Interestingly, shortly before his death Prokofiev was working on an

unaccompanied cello sonata for Rostropovich, which would have predated Britten’s

suites by a decade and been the first work for solo cello dedicated to the virtuoso.

Wilson, Elizabeth A. M. Mstislav Rostropovich: Cellist, Teacher, Legend. London: Faber

and Faber, 2007. 64-78, 125.

10!

It is possible that the composition process of the Suites was actually a joint

effort between Rostropovich and Britten, since there was a history of collaboration

between them. Though Britten completed the 1960 Sonata for Cello and Piano before

presenting it to Rostropovich, he sent the cellist the first movement of the Cello

Symphony in November of 1962 while the work was still in progress. He included a

note from Britten begging the cellist’s approval: “…I hope you will like it so far, dear

Slava; I must confess I can hear you in every note and every bar, although I fear it

may not be worthy of your great art.” Rostropovich responded, praising the excerpt as

“the very top of everything ever written for cello.”

Britten’s documented collaboration with guitarist Julian Bream suggests that

the unprecedented technical elements of the cello suites could have been developed in

partnership with Rostropovich. An interview conducted by Humphrey Carpenter with

British writer Donald Mitchell describes the cooperation between Britten and Bream:

“Ben would sometimes consult Julian, and ask, ‘Is this possible on the guitar?’ And

Julian would say, ‘No it isn’t.’ But then he would take it away and try it and find that

it was possible, that it worked.”

Although correspondence between Britten and Rostropovich that mentions the

Cello Suites is limited by their language barrier and geographic distance, a few

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!Carpenter, Humphrey. Benjamin Britten: a Biography. London: Faber and Faber,

1992. 415. Print.!

!Carpenter, Benjamin Britten: a Biography, 421.!

11!

available letters indicate that composer and cellist were in dialogue regarding the

Suites. In an undated letter from early 1965, Rostropovich refers to the First Cello

Suite, mentioning a previous letter from Britten: “You write in the letter that you

don’t consider this work too successful. I looked at it, so far only on paper, but I tell

you honestly: either you are too stupid to understand what a piece you have created or

it is simply pretense!”

Britten responded in January of 1965, saying “…I got your

letter about the Cello Suite, and I wonder now whether you have played it, and like it

a little, or find it impossible or dull to play? How I long to hear you play it!”

Even during the years Britten was not particularly prolific as an instrumental

composer, he remained active as a dynamic performer of chamber music as both a

pianist and a violist. Britten’s experience as a violist prepared him to compose for

solo cello, but the technical intricacies of the suites still imply some sort of

collaboration between cellist and composer.

Britten’s friendship with Rostropovich can also be seen as growing alongside

a mutual admiration between Britten and his contemporary, Dmitri Shostakovich.

Shostakovich also had a close creative relationship with Rostropovich and dedicated

multiple pieces to him, including his epic Cello Concerto No. 1; he was, as mentioned

before, responsible for introducing Rostropovich to Britten at the first British

performance of the concerto.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!Britten, Benjamin, Philip Reed, and Mervyn Cooke. Letters from a Life: the

Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, 1913-1976. Vol. 5. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2010.

639. Print.!

!Letters from a Life: the Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, 1913-1976. 628.!

12!

In 1965, Britten and Pears traveled to a Soviet composers’ colony in Armenia

to visit Rostropovich and his wife, as well as Shostakovich. As Britten got to know

Rostropovich, a friendship also blossomed between Shostakovich and Britten. There

was a great deal of mutual respect between the two composers. In The Rest is Noise,

Alex Ross argues that there was a connection between the emotional quality of their

music: “Britten’s psychological landscape, with its undulating contours of fear and

guilt, its fault lines and crevasses, its wan redeeming light, made Shostakovich feel at

home.”

The two men continued to correspond throughout the rest of their lives

(Shostakovich died only a year before Britten, in 1975), and arguably demonstrated

their admiration for each other’s music by quoting excerpts of the other’s work in

their own. The opening Declamato of Britten’s Second Cello Suite sounds strikingly

similar to the opening cello theme of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony (1937).

Scholars, including Ross, argue that excerpts of Shostakovich’s Fourteenth

Symphony are strongly reminiscent of Britten’s first Cello Suite, contributing to the

argument that this symphony is in honor of the friendship between the two

composers.

In conclusion, despite the significant differences in the ways Bach and Britten

composed, for both composers, their suites for solo cello marked a turn towards

instrumental music that was due in part to new friendships. For Bach, the fact that

Prince Leopold took a liking to him allowed him to obtain a position at the Cöthen

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!Ross, Alex. The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century. New York:

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. 436. Print.!

!Ross, Alex. The Rest Is Noise, 440.!

13!

court that gave him the freedom to explore new genres, like music for solo

instrumentalists. Additionally, Bach’s relationship and musical collaboration with

Anna Magdalena resulted in the only surviving copy of the Cello Suites. It was the

friendship Britten established with Rostropovich that led him to write for solo cello.

For Britten, there was of course the added resonance of Bach’s groundbreaking

contributions to the genre – an association I will explore in the next chapter.

14!

Chapter 2:

Exploring the Solo Instrumental Suite

Having looked, in the first chapter, at the personal circumstances that lay

behind Bach’s and Britten’s respective decisions to write music for solo cello, it is

now time to explore what the relationship was, for each composer, with the genre of

the solo instrumental suite. Here, I will analyze the inconsistent form of Britten’s

three suites in contrast with the rigid, unvarying structure of Bach’s six suites. I will

then argue that in the case of these two sets of suites, both composers were using an

obsolete musical framework, with terminology that was archaic for their time.

Baroque dance suites were old-fashioned by the time Bach wrote the cello suites. In

the case of Britten, there is a two-fold reference to the past: by the later 20

century,

Bach’s cello suites had become canonized in the musical repertoire. They were so

well known that all new works in this genre would inevitably be subject to

comparison. In writing cello suites, Britten invited direct comparison to Bach’s cello

suites, which were themselves already deliberately archaic. I conclude this chapter by

exploring the possible references that Britten is making by using the terms he does in

the format of his Suites, as well as the possible reasons he may have opted for this

particular genre.

Grove Music Online defines a suite as “any ordered set of instrumental pieces

meant to be performed at a single sitting.”

Different movements within a suite may

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fuller, David. "Suite." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 11 Feb. 2011

<http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/27091>.

15!

be connected in various ways: they may be in the same key or related keys,

movements may be variations on an established theme, or more subtle thematic

relationships may exist.

In Europe at the time of the Suites’ composition, the instrumental suite was

already a popular and well-established genre. A suite was comprised of a collection of

different dance movements, although the layout of suites varied from distinct

countries and composers. In the 17

century, French musicians began to group these

stylized dance movements, derived from court ballet, into sets with a common key.

Eventually, four movements emerged as the core of the typical Baroque Suite, in this

order: Allemande, Courante, Sarabande and Gigue. There was still frequent variation

of this framework, including the optional addition of preludes and “galanterie”

movements. Bach’s suites are prototypical Baroque suites, and despite the lack of

standardization of the format, Bach’s six cello suites all follow more or less the same

structure.

Each of Bach’s six cello suites is in six distinct movements. Opening each

suite is a Prelude. These Preludes are often virtuosic and rhythmically free, serving as

introductions to the individual character of each suite. The second movement of each

suite is an Allemande, which originated in sixteenth-century Germany as a lively

dance, but by Bach’s time was generally set at an elegantly slow tempo.

Following

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!Schulenberg, David. “Music for Solo Instruments I.” Music of the Baroque. New

York: Oxford UP, 2008. 222. !

!Siblin, The Cello Suites.!

16!

the Allemande is the Courante, which appears as the third movement in all of the six

suites. The Courante is a lively, fast-paced dance that was popular in various regions

of Europe in Bach’s time. A Sarabande follows each Courante. The Sarabande is

typically the slowest and most melancholy movement of these suites; Rostropovich

once described the Sarabande as evoking a “dreamy sadness.”

The fifth movement

is the only which varies from suite to suite. Despite this variation, Bach always

employs a pair of popular French court dances, choosing from the Minuet, Bourée

and Gavotte. The first two suites feature Minuets, the third, Bourées, while the fifth

and sixth use Gavottes. These “galanterie movements” are light and usually feature a

memorable tune. The sixth and last movement of each suite is a lively Gigue, which

has a faster tempo than any other movement and playfully concludes the suite.

A side-by-side comparison of the sixth Bach and the first Britten solo cello

suites highlights the broad spectrum of material held within the genre of “suite” by

each of these composers.

Bach’s sixth suite is a prototypical Baroque suite in that

although each movement, including both “galanterie” movements, travels to other

keys and establishes new tonics, the harmony always returns to and cadences in D

Major. Although all six suites are firmly rooted in a given key, there is a slight

difference between the first three and the second three. While the movements of the

fourth, fifth and sixth suites remain purely in their particular key, the second

galanterie movement of the first, second and third suites cadence in the parallel minor

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Siblin, The Cello Suites, 108.

These two works were performed back to back in my thesis recital.!

17!

or major of the other movements, creating a somewhat stronger divergence from the

original key. This slight variation barely changes the overall effect of the suite’s

consistency of harmony, especially since the galanterie movements are in Da Capo

form and the second galanterie is heard more as the B section of one movement in A-

B-A form than as an independent movement.

The form of Britten’s first suite is as follows:

Canto Primo – I. Fuga – II. Lamento

Canto Secondo – III. Serenata – IV. Marcia

Canto Terzo – V. Bordone – VI. Moto perpetuo e Canto Quarto.

The term “Canto” has a literary overtone, recalling Dante’s Divine Comedy as

well as Ezra Pound’s long poem, The Cantos. Musically, Britten’s cantos function

similarly to the Promenades from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, dividing

the longer movements and recycling material from the introductory “Canto Primo”

later on. Since Britten chose to leave the Cantos unnumbered, the suite contains six

true, numbered movements, a possible reference to the six-movement form of Bach’s

suites, albeit that the second and third Suites deviate from this pattern, consisting of

five and nine movements, respectively. Additionally, the third Suite contains a

numbered, full-length movement titled “Canto,” straying from what Britten

established the canto to be in the first suite. It is clear that Britten’s suites are much

more flexible than Bach’s in their form and organization.

18!

But the fact remains that both Bach and Britten were composing within a

musical framework that was obsolete. The dances presented in Baroque Suites had

long passed from fashion; these suites were never meant to accompany any real

movement. David Schulenberg estimates that the Allemande was only danced from

1550 to around 1600.

The movements of the Bach Suites no longer resembled or

represented the characteristics associated with the original dance of the same name.

Additionally, by 1720 the term “suite” had begun to be replaced by other terms.

François Couperin used the term “ordre” in reference to his suite-like harpsichord

works, the first volume of which were written a decade before Bach’s cello suites.

“Partita” had also emerged as a synonym for “suite.”

It is notable that in the compositions that immediately preceded the

composition of the Cello Suites, the six Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, Bach had

already begun to abandon the outmoded terminology and form of the Baroque Suite.

Although the violin sonatas are consistent in their form (four movements which

alternate slow-fast-slow-fast, with Italian titles, in the style of the Italian “sonata da

chiesa”), the three partitas are much more unorthodox. They contain different

numbers of movements (four, five and seven respectively) and while they incorporate

traditional movements from the prototypical Baroque suite, they introduce new

elements that make them much more novel in their structure than the unchanging, six-

movement framework of the cello suites. After beginning to stray from the

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Schulenberg, David. Music of the Baroque. 241.

!Schulenberg, David. Music of the Baroque. 268.!!

19!

established Baroque suite structure in the partitas, why did Bach subsequently

organize the cello suites in such a traditional and fixed fashion?

The Baroque suite was a well-established and popular genre. Bach evidently

wished to situate his new solo works in this tradition, which is how he came to use

these archaic French movement names. But why did Britten title the movements of

his Suites using antiquated, Italian terms? It is possible that he was referencing the

first dated works for unaccompanied cello, which go back to late seventeenth-century

Italy, works that would have been precedents for Bach in his own composition

process. A cluster of Italian cellists and composers were beginning to explore the

soloistic potential of the cello. Both Giovanni Battista degli Antonii (1610-98) and

Domenico Gabrielli (1659-1690) worked out of Bologna and wrote ricercari for solo

cello. Gabrielli’s Seven Ricercari for solo cello (1689) began to explore the

instrument’s virtuosic capabilities, incorporating “florid passagework and double,

triple and quadruple stops.”

Other pioneering works for solo cello came from the

court of Modena, where Giuseppe Colombi (1635-1694) wrote toccatas and

ciacconas for cello. These pieces would have influenced Domenico Galli (1649-

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!The more inconsistent arrangements of the Partitas indicate a stronger connection

between Britten’s suites and these Bach violin pieces, rather than his cello suites.

Britten was probably also referencing the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin when he

wrote the suites for Rostropovich. This hypothesis is strengthened by the observation

that Britten’s second cello suite concludes with a Ciaccona that is significantly longer

than the preceding four movements, immediately recalling the monumental Ciaccona

that concludes the second Partita in D minor for solo violin.

Suess, John and Vanscheeuwijck, Marc. "Gabrielli, Domenico." Grove Music Online.

Oxford Music Online. 15 Mar. 2011

<http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/10453>.

20!

1697) to write his Trattenimento musicale, a set of twelve unaccompanied sonatas for

violoncello, published in 1691.

I would conjecture that Bach and Britten may have both looked to these early

Italian examples of solo string music before composing their suites. Bach was often

influenced directly by Italian composers and musical style. Many of his compositions

directly exhibit characteristics of a popular Italian musical form.

This indicates that

he may have been familiar with the solo string music of these late 17

-century Italian

composers. The fact that his sonatas and partitas for solo violin, composed

immediately before the Suites, incorporate Italian terms in their movement titles is

further evidence that Bach looked to these pioneering Italians before composing for

solo cello. Britten was probably consciously following in Bach’s footsteps, looking to

Italian precedents; in this way, he was in touch with, and interested in exploring,

Bach’s process of composing the cello suites.

Although Britten deliberately fashioned the movement titles of his suites to

appear to be antiquated, Italian terms, some of them don’t necessarily have a

traceable performance history. For example, the reasons for the Bordone from the

first suite are particularly hard to determine. “Bordone” simply means “Drone” in

French, and almost every musical tradition, Eastern and Western alike, has employed

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pyron, Nona and Lepore, Angela. "Galli, Domenico." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music

Online. 15 Mar. 2011

<http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/10550>.

Wolff, Johann Sebastian Bach: the Learned Musician. 126.

21!

the use of drones.

The Marcia is similarly hard to pinpoint. Although marches

appeared frequently in Baroque music, especially Italian opera, they were never

found in a chamber music setting. This march is much more likely to be a reference to

a 20

century march, for instance Prokofiev’s March from his 1919 opera, “The Love

for Three Oranges.” Another example is the Passacaglia that concludes the third suite.

Although the passacaglia’s origins are in 17

century Spain and Italy, and although

the term is strongly associated with Bach’s organ music, by the 1960s, the form had

already been revived as a well-established convention in 20

-century opera. By the

time he wrote his cello suites, Britten had already explored passacaglia form in Peter

Grimes and other works.

Britten probably would have also been familiar with and influenced by some

works for solo cello composed by other 20

-century composers in the years before he

met Rostropovich. (Since there is a great volume of pieces written for solo cello in

the 20

century before the 1960s, Britten was most likely to have come across either

works by other British composers, or other works using the title of Suite. American

composer Ernest Bloch wrote three “suites” for solo cello in 1956-7 that may have

caught Britten’s attention. He would have most likely heard Max Reger’s three cello

suites of 1915, much more overt in their Baroque references than Bloch’s.

Interestingly, lesser-known Russian composer Boris Tchaikovsky published a suite

for solo cello for Mstislav Rostropovich in 1960, the year the cellist met Benjamin

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Baines, Anthony. “Drone.” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online.

<http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/08192>

Ross, Alex. The Rest is Noise. 427.

22!

Britten. These are just a few examples of countless pieces that Britten could have had

an awareness of when he began writing his cello suites.

In choosing to write unaccompanied cello suites for Rostropovich, rather than

more accompanied music, Britten must have been deliberately situating his pieces in

the lineage of Bach’s suites, as well as of his Italianate influences. Britten also wrote

“suites” for a number of other solo instrumentalists. In addition to Rostropovich’s

cello suites, he wrote suites for solo oboe, guitar and harp. It is possible that Britten

saw writing unaccompanied music as a valuable exercise of discipline, requiring

writing of the utmost efficiency. Britten could have also been interested in the textural

possibilities offered by unaccompanied cello music and the variation between single

melodic lines and compound melody. He may have been attracted to the challenge of

achieving great compositional complexity through instrumental simplicity.

But I would argue that since his Cello Suites are such a personal tribute to

Rostropovich, Britten wanted to pay homage to the Bach suites because he knew how

important they were to his dear friend. He may also have been moved by

Rostropovich’s own performance of the Bach suites at the Aldeburgh Festival.

The

limitations of writing for solo cello would be slighter when working with a virtuoso

with the technical abilities of his friend. Rostropovich recorded half of the Bach suites

in 1956 when he was 29, and re-recorded all six forty years later. He expressed his

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shin-I Su, Elizabeth. Innovative Use of Technique in Benjamin Britten’s Cello

Works: The Inspiration of Mstislav Rostropovich. Doctor of Musical Arts

Dissertation, University of Maryland – College Park, 2003.

23!

long-lasting adoration of the pieces in a 1991 interview when he said, “Nothing in the

world is more precious to me than these Suites.”

Clearly both Bach and Britten were drawing upon numerous sources and ideas

as they composed their cello suites. This resulted, in both cases, in multifaceted works

that present contemporary performers with significant challenges, which I will

discuss in the next chapter.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Furie, Kenneth. "Bach, a Cello, a Church in Burgundy, Rostropovich - New York

Times." NY Times. June 1995. Web. Mar. 2011.

<http://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/18/arts/video-view-bach-a-cello-a-church-in-

burgundy-rostropovich.html>.

24!

CHAPTER 3:

Performing the Cello Suites

By the time Bach joined the court of Cöthen, Prince Leopold had helped

ensure the hiring of several instrumental virtuosos from Berlin. These included the

successful cellist Carl Bernhard Lienicke and gambist Christian Ferdinand Abel, who

both arrived shortly after Leopold took control of court in 1716.

It seems more than

likely that Bach wrote his cello suites with either of these specific, accomplished

instrumentalists in mind.

Although lack of evidence prevents further exploration of the influence of a

particular performance relationship on Bach’s composition of the cello suites, the

technical demands he makes of the player far exceed anything hitherto asked of a solo

instrumentalist. His suites go far beyond the music of the earlier Italian composers of

solo instrumental music. In the case of Britten, we are on surer ground. His friendship

with Rostropovich is well documented and has been indisputably established as the

impetus for the composition of Britten’s three suites for solo cello.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wolff, Johann Sebastian Bach: the Learned Musician. 194.

Phillip Spitta’s extensive, three-volume Bach biography is primarily responsible for

introducing the idea that the Suites could have been written for gambist Christian

Ferdinand Abel. This argument remained fairly common, although recently many

Bach scholars have discarded this theory, arguing that there is no proof that Abel

played cello at all.

Wolff, Johann Sebastian Bach: the Learned Musician.!

25!

These pieces were not simply dedicated to Rostropovich, but also embodied

his performance technique and personality. First, by collaborating with a virtuoso

soloist in the prime of his performance career, Britten was virtually unhindered by

concerns of writing any material that was too technically challenging. Therefore, the

suites are highly technically challenging, featuring difficult double stops, intricate

passagework, col legno (in which the strings are struck with the wooden upper

portion of the bow), rapid string crossings, delicate natural harmonics, and extensive

use of the cello’s uppermost register. The third full movement of the first suite is a

Serenata that is entirely different kinds of pizzicato - from twinkly and pianissimo to

loud and sonorous, as well as notably difficult left-hand pizzicato. The fifth

movement is a Bordone in which the performer must hold a D pedal point while

playing separate melodies on other strings.

In addition to taking advantage of his friend’s remarkable virtuosity, Britten

exploited Rostropovich’s interpretive style and quirks as a cellist. Reviews of

Rostropovich’s recordings from the 1960s reveal a distinctive style of playing that

was recognized (and sometimes disapproved of) by critics.

One particular feature that struck reviewers was Rostropovich’s manipulation

of tempo. A 1960 Gramophone review of Rostropovich’s recording of an

arrangement of various Debussy piano pieces for solo cello notes the cellist’s colorful

use of “rubato whims,”

emphasizing his stretching of particular musical phrases in

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

F., R. Rev. of Mstislav Rostropovich. Preludes, Book I (Debussy). Gramophone

Jan. 1960: 85. Print.

26!

order to achieve dramatic effect. Another reviewer, writing on Rostropovich’s 1963

performance of the Schumann cello concerto in A minor, cautiously commented that

Rostropovich “allowed himself wider speed variations than most listeners will

welcome.”

This highlights the extreme, exaggerated quality of Rostropovich’s

interpretations of oft-performed works that has distinguished him from other cellists,

but is not always well received.

In addition to this flexibility with regards to tempo, music critics also

acknowledged great variation in Rostropovich’s playing with regards to volume and

tone color. Reviewers of Rostropovich’s performances from the 1960s noted the

striking quality of his extremely quiet, withdrawn pianissimo’s and his heavy,

powerful forte’s, and praised the subtleties of his tone variation.

These features of Rostropovich’s playing contributed to his reputation among

critics and listeners as a dynamic and highly expressive musician. A 1964 review of

Rostropovich’s performance of the Britten Cello Symphony with the English

Chamber Orchestra (conducted by Benjamin Britten himself) emphasized the cellist’s

ability to deeply connect emotionally with a piece of music, noting that he was “…so

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

E.G. Rev. of SCHUMANN. Cello Concerto in A Minor, Op. 129. Mstislav

Rostropovich. Gramophone Aug. 1963: 52. Print.!

Rev. of BEETHOVEN. Cello Sonatas. Mstislav Rostropovich. Gramophone Feb.

1964: 44. Print.

27!

completely inside the music that one ceases to be aware whether what he is doing is

difficult or not…”

This intensity of musical expression is certainly reflected in the composition

of the cello suites. Fluctuations in tempi in the first Suite are marked both explicitly in

the score, using indicating terms like rallentando, allargando and accelerando, and

also implicitly in the variation of note values. To mention one of many examples, in

the last movement, Moto perpetuo e Canto quarto, amidst a flurry of sixteenth notes

Britten re-introduces the majestic theme from the first Canto in quarter notes. This

creates a sudden and dramatic contrast in tempo. The piece is also characterized by

considerable variation in volume and tone color. Each of the six full movements of

the suites possesses a range in dynamics that spans at least from pianissimo to

fortissimo (the majority of them include moments marked “fff” or “ppp.”).Although

for the most part, the tempo and dynamic markings speak for themselves with regards

to emotional character, the movements are also sometimes marked with specific

indications as to the their disposition. These further demonstrate the emotional

intensity and contrast presented in the suite. A particularly placid moment in the

Canto primo is marked “tranquillo,” while in the Lamento, the performer is instructed

to play “piangendo,” meaning “weeping, plaintively.”

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rev. of Mstislav Rostropovich BRITTEN. Symphony for Cello and Orchestra, Op.

68. Gramophone Dec. 1964: 46. Print.!

!"Piangendo, piangente." The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed. rev. Ed. Michael

Kennedy. Oxford Music Online. 28 Mar. 2011

<http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t237/e7898>.!

28!

There are enough examples in the suites that exhibit Rostropovich’s

idiosyncrasies as a performer that it is safe to say that they aren’t coincidences:

Britten wrote the pieces specifically to honor and complement Rostropovich’s

technique. But I would like to argue that Rostropovich’s personality was just as much

captured in the Suites as his performance tendencies. In his 1996 biography of

Britten, Michael Oliver states, “Rostropovich’s character was…demonstratively

emotional…impulsive, endearingly flamboyant and eccentric, his personality is as

closely reflected in Britten’s music for him as the virtuosity and intense

expressiveness of his playing.”

In an interview with Humphrey Carpenter,

Rostropovich’s wife, Galina Vishnevskaya, described her husband as a “man with a

kind of frantic motor inside him,”

characterized by dramatic mood swings. These

descriptions of Rostropovich’s character could most certainly apply to the three

Britten suites.

* * *

It is intimidating as a cellist to begin rehearsing any unaccompanied piece. In

this solo music, one instrument is responsible for providing both melodic content and

a harmonic foundation. Stringed instruments like the cello are traditionally only used

for melodic material, given that only four strings are used in performance. Only two

strings can sustain sound together, although three can briefly sound simultaneously.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oliver, Michael. Benjamin Britten. London: Phaidon Press, 1996. 170.

!Carpenter, Humphrey. Benjamin Britten: A Biography. 398.

29!

In his “Some Performance Problems of Bach’s Unaccompanied Violin and

Cello Works,” Frederick Neumann argues that great difficulties for performers arise

due to the fact that “Bach wrote contrapuntal music for two purely melodic

instruments that can form pitches on only four strings with only four fingers…”

(In

the time of Bach’s composition, thumb position, in which a cellist brings his or her

entire hand onto the fingerboard of the instrument, had not yet been incorporated in

common practice.) Accurately playing every note on the page can prove a challenge

and may often require very specific (and sometimes uncomfortable) hand positioning.

In my preparations for performing the sixth Bach suite and the first Britten

suite back to back, I found that these two pieces in particular raised an additional set

of challenges due to the circumstances under which they were composed. Although

we are unable to know for sure, it is generally accepted that unlike the first five suites,

the sixth and final suite was written for some variety of five-stringed cello that

included an E string in addition to the four expected cello strings. Scholars have

speculated and debated over the issues of which particular instrument this was, and

over why it was that Bach diverted from the pattern he established in the first five

suites to write his final suite for a completely different instrument. A wide variety of

cello-like instruments of different sizes, with four or five strings, would have still

been played in Germany around the time of the Suites’ composition, making it

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Neumann, Frederick. "Some Performance Problems of Bach's Unaccompanied

Violin and Cello Works." Eighteenth-century Music in Theory and Practice: Essays

in Honor of Alfred Mann. Ed. Mary Ann Parker. Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon, 1994.

19-48. Print, p. 19.!

30!

impossible to determine exactly for which instrument Bach was writing. Some

scholars have postulated that Bach actually invented his own five-stringed small cello

or large viola for which the sixth suite may have been intended.

One thing that is

certain is that mastering the high passagework that the suite entails is significantly

more difficult on a modern cello with no E string. Recordings and videos on

YouTube of performances of the sixth suite on various five-stringed instruments may

invoke rage and jealousy as the most difficult passages seem to fly by effortlessly.

The Britten suites pose a challenge for the performer that has more to do with

interpretation, (although mastering the notes is hardly an easy task). The collaboration

and companionship between Rostropovich and Britten created a unique situation in

which the dedicatee and first performer of the written works had unlimited access to

the composer’s input with regards to interpretation. Thus, the intentions of both

Britten and Rostropovich are available for future performers of these pieces. In the

example of the cello suites, not only did Rostropovich record the first two suites

under direct supervision from Britten, but also published an edition of the suites with

his own fingerings and additional dynamic markings.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stephen Bonta, et al. "Violoncello." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 29

Mar. 2011

<http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/44041>.

!I am referring, in particular, to YouTube videos of cellists Ophelie Gaillard and

Josephine Van Lier performing the sixth suite on cello piccolo.

For example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9um5apDoOY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Kxo-m4_oA&feature=related

31!

But this provides modern performers with a limitation: the fact that any

performer of the Suites has access to the interpretations of Rostropovich and Britten

limits their own individual variation in performances of these pieces. A performer is

less likely to deviate from the indications in the score if it means a departure from

what the composer wanted to hear. It is incredibly tempting to simply study

Rostropovich’s performances of these pieces and mimic them as accurately as

possible.

In contrast, we have an absolute lack of any definite performance

interpretation that would have pleased or displeased Bach. As mentioned previously,

we do not even have the composer’s manuscript of the suites, only a copy written out

by Anna Magdalena Bach. This lack of insight into Bach’s preferred interpretation

results in great controversy over the composer’s intentions and the “correct” way to

perform the pieces, and also leads to a great deal of variation in performances of the

suites.

This was, however, not always the case. Despite the fact that today countless

cellists everywhere prepare and perform starkly different interpretations of the suites,

their early performance history was once dominated by a specific virtuoso cellist:

Pablo Casals. Casals was almost single-handedly responsible for establishing the

suites in modern cello solo repertoire. The first public performance of any Suite was

by Casals, around 1901 or 1902.

Since Casals continued to perform the pieces

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Siblin, The Cello Suites, 74.

32!

throughout his career and he achieved widespread fame, his star status served as a

platform for introducing the public to Bach’s cello suites.

The strong association between the Suites and Pablo Casals certainly affected

their early performance history. Although Pablo Casals, a famous virtuoso, could get

away with performing entire suites in one sitting, for the first part of the 20

century

they were still typically played as exercises and used as pedagogical tools. Single

movements were typically learned independent of each other, and were sometimes,

but very rarely, performed as a short concert encore.

It was much longer before

other cellists felt comfortable enough to perform suites as a whole.

An examination of available recordings of the Bach suites also reveals the

breadth of Casals’ influence on their performance practice. Casals was, of course, the

first to produce a complete recorded account of all six suites, recorded throughout the

1930s.

(It is a little strange that Casals did not record the suites until he had been

performing them for over a quarter of a century.) His recording has without a doubt

remained the most influential recording of the works and has never gone out of print.

Additionally, the earliest available recording of all six suites after Casals’ that I could

find is Pierre Fournier’s 1961 recording. Perhaps cellists recorded the Suites in the

1940s and 1950s, but the shadow Casals cast prevented them from holding any real

influence in the long run. Or maybe cellists were intimidated by the strong association

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Horton, Scott. "Bach’s Cello Suites–Six Questions for Eric Siblin (Harper's

Magazine)." Harper's Magazine. Web. Mar. 2011.

<http://harpers.org/archive/2011/01/hbc-90007890>.!

!Siblin, The Cello Suites, 115.!

33!

between Casals and the suites, and felt uncomfortable following up the recording of

the performer who had brought the suites to the spotlight.

Whatever the reason, eventually performers overcame their reservations and

increasing numbers of cellists began performing and recording the suites. As of 2009,

there were “more than fifty recordings in the catalogue and upwards of seventy-five

performance editions of the music for cellists.”

It is also possible that the strong association between Britten’s cello suites and

Mstislav Rostropovich has perhaps prevented them from widespread recording and

performance. The earliest available recording of all three suites (since Rostropovich

never recorded the third) is Timothy Hugh’s 1987 recording - a significant time after

Rostropovich’s initial 1960s recording of the first two suites. Maybe, as with the

Bach suites, with time more performers will be drawn to revisiting and playing the

Britten suites. But in an era of greater documentation, one wonders whether

performers will ever feel entirely free of Rostropovich’s presence, which is so strong

in the Britten pieces. It is my hope that they will eventually become open for

interpretation in the way that the Bach suites are now. These pieces may have been

written for, and with the assistance of specific individuals, but they reach out beyond

their immediate time and place to generations of solo instrumentalists, many still to

come.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!Siblin, Eric. The Cello Suites. 6. !

34!

Conclusion

Since Rostropovich only recorded two of the three Britten suites, he left the

door open for other cellists to offer listeners a complete recording of the set.

However, Rostropovich casts a shadow on every later performer. Every review I

encountered of a subsequent recording of the Britten suites offered some kind of

comparison to Rostropovich’s definitive 1968 Decca version, usually to reinforce the

idea that it can not be surpassed. A Guardian review of Pieter Wispelwey’s 2010

recording echoes the sentiment behind the majority of these reviews:

“Rostropovich…set standards that all of Wispelwey’s best intentions can’t quite

match.”

Certain recordings have garnered some authority of their own. Norwegian

cellist Truls Mørk’s 2001 recording has been widely respected by classical music

critics as perhaps the best complete set of the suites. Even Mørk, however, does not

escape comparison with Rostropovich; British music critic Michael White notes,

“…his playing is less energetic than Rostropovich’s but more elegiac.”

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!Clements, Andrew. "Britten: Cello Symphony; Cello Suite No 1 | CD Review |

Music | The Guardian." Guardian.co.uk. 17 June 2010. Web. 04 Apr. 2011.

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jun/17/britten-cello-symphony-suite-

wispelwey>.!

!White, Michael. "Truls Mørk - Britten - Cello Suites 1-3." Amazon.com. Web. 10

Mar. 2011. <http://www.amazon.com/Truls-Mørk-Britten-Cello-

Suites/dp/B00004Z34E>.!

35!

It was with some trepidation that I undertook to perform both the Britten and

Bach suites in my recital. There was an element of compromise in my performance of

both pieces: I perform the 6

Bach suite on an instrument for which it was not written

(and with one string fewer than the instrument for which it was written). Likewise,

the Britten was written for a specific performer with certain traits of technique and

personality that are impossible for me to fully capture. Are my performances, and all

contemporary performances of these pieces, merely pale renditions of the original

compositions?

Since the Bach Suites only began to be performed publicly in the 20

century,

when Baroque instruments were no longer readily available, cellists have been

performing the sixth suite on modern instruments since its arrival to the cello

repertoire. Performances of the suite on five-stringed instruments are few and far

between, due to the unavailability of these outdated instruments. Therefore, my

performance of the suite falls directly in line with its performance history. As a result,

helpful fingerings and bowings are well established and readily available.

I’ve decided that since Britten has so clearly written Rostropovich’s technique

and personality into the music of the suites, any performance of them naturally

emulates the great cellist. By interacting with the score, a performer is also interacting

with Rostropovich. Therefore, although the Rostropovich Decca recordings of the

first two suites serve as powerful references for contemporary cellists, they should

resist the temptation to further imitate these performances, however legendary.

36!

Instead of representing Rostropovich’s nature, I am interested in representing

the nature of the friendship between composer and cellist. Since Rostropovich’s

flamboyance and expressiveness is clearly represented in the score of the Suites, I

think it may be moving to also represent Britten’s personality, which was decidedly

more restrained and reserved. I think incorporating the personalities of both these

men is an effective way to present pieces that are such direct products of their

friendship.

Part of the incredible power of Rostropovich’s playing came from his amazing

ability to tell the music’s story in his own voice. In his review of Rostropovich’s

delivery of the first British performance of Britten’s Cello Symphony, critic Desmond

Shawe-Taylor wrote, “Rostropovich played the work as though he had composed it

himself.”

Rather than attempting to emulate the details of Rostropovich’s, or any

other cellist’s interpretations, we should instead try to embody what Shawe-Taylor

noted of this remarkable musician. Cellists should determine, and in turn strive to

effectively convey, their own musical understanding of any piece, whether it is a

Bach suite from the 1720s, a Britten suite from the 1960s, or anything in between.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Carpenter, Humphrey. Benjamin Britten: A Biography. 429.

37!

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