2006 Mozart and Britten Choose Quantity

The fascinating Third Cello Suite of Britten—the last of six important works composed for the great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich (to whom the Suite’s Russian themes pay homage)—testifies to the endless inventiveness of one of the great creative minds of the twentieth century. Like this work, the Quintet for Piano and Winds, K. 452, of Mozart, which concludes Disc Six, is a singular masterpiece. At the time of its creation, Mozart himself regarded it as “the best work I have ever composed.&rdquo