Program

Exquisitie Corpse
Improvisation on Birdsong

Benjamin Britten
Suite No. 1 for Cello Solo, Op. 72

Canto primo: Sostenuto e largamente
Fuga: Andante moderato
Lamento: Lento rubato
Canto secondo: Sostenuto
Serenata: Allegretto pizzicato
Marcia: Alla marcia moderato
Canto terzo: Sostenuto
Bordone: Moderato quasi recitativo
Moto perpetuo e Canto quarto: Presto

Benjamin Britten’s Cello Suite No. 1 offers a strikingly intimate and vivid portrait of both the composer and the man for whom it was written: cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. In crafting this work, Britten resurrected the solo cello suite form with a modern voice, bringing together echoes of Bach’s intensity with deeply personal musical images. It’s a piece that invites us into a conversation between two friends, expressed in nine movements that range from bold declarations to hushed introspections.

The recurring Canto theme serves as the heart of the suite, anchoring us in its forthright, almost spoken quality. This theme reappears like a refrain, guiding us through a spectrum of emotions: moments of lightness and playfulness are undercut by whispers of nocturnal unrest, and lyrical sections give way to bursts of intense, almost defiant energy. Britten’s music paints the cello in every shade of its expressive range, from delicate pizzicato to resonant, powerful statements.

This piece is filled with moments that feel like pauses for breath, as if the cello itself were speaking, capturing Britten’s genius for creating vocal-like lines in instrumental music. It’s a piece that speaks directly to the listener with raw honesty and colour, and through its shifting moods and vivid musical scenes, it reminds us that music for one instrument alone can reach into the depths of human feeling.

Maurice Ravel
Sonata for Violin and Cello, M. 73

I. Allegro II. Très vif III. Lent IV. Vif, avec entrain

Maurice Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello is a raw, unflinching piece that is ‘stripped to the bone, rejecting the allure of harmony’. Composed in the early 1920s, this sonata emerged as Ravel’s response to a world rebuilding itself after the Great War, rejecting lush Romanticism in favour of stark simplicity. Here, the violin and cello do not just play side by side but grapple, converse, and sometimes clash together. There’s often no cushioning of harmony to soften this piece; every note feels exposed, direct, and unyielding.

The sonata also reflects a personal tension for Ravel. With the death of Debussy in 1918, he was seen as France’s leading composer —a role he didn’t seek, and one that placed him under constant comparison to his late friend. Ravel disdained the trappings of popularity, yet his music became a defining voice for French modernism. This sonata, in all its intensity, seems almost a defiant reaction to that spotlight: it’s uncompromising, rejecting simple beauty for something more gripping and visceral.

As the violin and cello weave together, each asserting its voice in unison or opposition, the music invites us into a space of heightened emotion and stark contrasts—a place of powerful dialogue between the instruments, and perhaps within Ravel himself.

Peteris Vasks
Castillo Interior

I. Allegro II. Lento espressivo III. Allegro con brio

Vasks’s Castillo Interior, inspired by Saint Teresa of Ávila, draws listeners into a meditative journey that contrasts purity with turbulence. The long, hymn-like lines feel almost like a distant choir, evoking a sense of timelessness and deep contemplation. Twice, this calm is shattered by bursts of rapid, turbulent notes— the chaos of the outside world shattering one’s inner peace. This tension between solitude and disturbance brings a sense of drama to the music, drawing us into a journey that mirrors the soul’s own struggle for peace amid life’s unrest.