As part of the Britten 100 celebrations this recording features the outstanding cellist Zuill Bailey performing two of the composer’s major works, the Cello Symphony and the Cello Sonata. The North Carolina Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Grant Llewellyn, while Bailey’s partner in the Sonata is the rising Russian-born virtuoso Natasha Paremski.

With this release, American cellist Zuill Bailey adds a pair of major works for cello by Benjamin Britten to an impressive discography that includes critically-acclaimed recordings of J.S. Bach’s Cello Suites, the complete works for cello and piano by Beethoven (with Simone Dinnerstein), music for cello and piano by Brahms, the CD Russian Masterpieces for Cello and Orchestra, Dvorak’s Cello Concerto and in early 2013, a stunning recording of the Elgar concerto.

The Gramophone recently referred to Zuill Bailey as an “articulate, selfless and communicative musician”. He has built his reputation on deeply soulful performances of the great cello repertoire that eschew affectation and melodrama. Both pieces included on this disc were written in the early 1960s for Mstislav Rostropovich, one of the greatest cellists of the 20th century and one of Britten’s most important musical collaborators.

While Zuill Bailey, who started playing cello the year that Britten died, never had the luxury of working with Britten, the two are nonetheless kindred spirits of sorts, reaching across the millennial line to express the full range and depth of both human sentiment and musical colour. The result is one of the most vital recordings to come out of the Britten centenary.