Britten: Cello Suites 1-3

The Cello Suites are the most intimate, introspective, and, for many listeners, resistible of all the major Britten scores, and so it takes a special interpretive talent to make manifest their worth, vitality, and genius. For works of genius they surely are: austere in form but rich in thought, in much the manner of Bach's unaccompanied cello suites, which lay the ground rules for this kind of repertory. They were originally written for Rostropovich, who remains their champion of choice. But for reasons best known to himself, Rostropovich has only ever recorded the first two, leaving the field open for younger cellists to set down the complete series. Truls Mork makes his contribution with readings of stature that scrutinize the material and project it with a big, warm resonance. His playing is perhaps less energized than Rostropovich's but more elegiac, and it has all the technical accomplishment you'd expect from someone who by now must rank among the top five cellists in the world. Enormously impressive. --Michael White