Bridge & Britten music for cello & piano – Øystein Birkeland

Øystein Birkeland, Benjamin Britten and Frank Bridge

The names of Frank Bridge and Benjamin Britten will forever be thought of as master and pupil, simply because Britten was Bridge’s only student of composition. Their individual careers, however, developed quite differently. Bridge might be said to have become a victim to English protectionism, as his orientation towards the European modernism was not well received by the London critics. As late as the 1970s, his late works were virtually unplayed, even in his native country. Britten, on the other hand, consolidated his successful beginnings and rose ever higher in esteem, both at home and abroad. Where as Bridge’s music for cello and piano belong quite early in his production, Britten did not write his 5 movement cello sonata until 1961, and it was premiered that same year by Mistislav Rostropovich, with Britten himself at the keyboard.

Not your run-of-the-mill cellist, Øystein Birkeland’s carer takes him around the world on different stages and venues. Just returning from a chamber music festival in the US, he heads of to Moscow to do concerts with pianist Mischa Alperin. His partner on this recording is Vebjørn Anvik, perhaps best known to international music lovers as the pianist of Grieg Trio. Together they give wonderful readings of this mesmerising music.