The Cello Sonata, Op. 65, is a work by the English composer

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

. It was premiered in July 1961 at the

Aldeburgh Festival The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the Aldeburgh area of Suffolk, centred on Snape Maltings Concert Hall. History of the Aldeburgh Festival Th ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

. The work is in five movements: #Dialogo. Allegro #Scherzo-Pizzicato. Allegretto #Elegia. Lento #Marcia. Energico #Moto perpetuo. Presto

History

On 21 September 1960, a concert at the

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I l ...

in London introduced Britten to the cellist

Mstislav Rostropovich Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, (27 March 192727 April 2007) was a Russian cellist and conductor. He is considered by many to be the greatest cellist of the 20th century. In addition to his interpretations and technique, he was wel ...

. The programme included the British premiere of

Dmitri Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throug ...

's First Cello Concerto, performed by Rostropovich, alongside Britten's ''

The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra ''The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra'', Op. 34, is a 1945 musical composition by Benjamin Britten with a subtitle ''Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell''. It was based on the second movement, "Rondeau", of the ''Abdelazer'' suit ...

''. The two composers shared a ceremonial audience box. Shostakovich later confided to Rostropovich: After the performance, Rostropovich, already established as an obsessive commissioner of new works, pleaded with Britten to write him a piece for cello. The composer consented, and a year later produced the Cello Sonata, Op. 65. This became Britten's first of five major works written for Rostropovich over the course of the next decade – the others being the

Cello Symphony The Symphony for Cello and Orchestra or Cello Symphony, Op. 68, was written in 1963 by the British composer Benjamin Britten. He dedicated the work to Mstislav Rostropovich, who gave the work its premiere in Moscow with the composer and the Mosco ...

and the three suites for solo cello. Britten's correspondence with Rostropovich reveals the composer's humility in the face of Rostropovich's reputation: he confesses "I may have made some mistakes" and quips that "the pizzicato movement will amuse you; I hope it is possible!" In the scherzo-pizzicato, one can immediately detect an indebtedness, in its timbre and counterpoint, to the Balinese

gamelan Gamelan () ( jv, ꦒꦩꦼꦭꦤ꧀, su, ᮌᮙᮨᮜᮔ᮪, ban, ᬕᬫᭂᬮᬦ᭄) is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. T ...

tradition. The final ''Moto perpetuo'' movement uses the DSCH motif (the musical transformation of Shostakovich's name) as a tribute to the composer who inspired Britten to write for cello. The first performance took place at the

on 7 July 1961.Mervyn Cooke
Notes to Hyperion CD A67941/2
(2013)

Notes

References

*Reed, Philip, and Mervyn Cooke, eds. ''Letters from a Life: The Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, Volume 5, 1913–1976''. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 2010. *Cooke, Mervyn, ed. ''The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Britten''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. *Lloyd Webber, Julian. "Britten's Third Cello Suite." ''Strad'' 91 (Mar 1981), 796–797. {{Authority control Chamber music by Benjamin Britten

Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

1961 compositions