In reviewing Pieter Wispelwey's complete recording of the Bach solo suites (4/92) I expressed reservations over numerous aspects of his performances, but the deficiencies one might have anticipated in the Britten suites do not manifest themselves here. With the obvious exception of Rostropovich, the dedicatee of Britten's works for cello, I know of no other player who reveals the subliminal architecture and conceptual mastery of these taxing and intellectually demanding works with such clarity.
Wispelwey finds a greater degree of fantasy in the Third Suite (arguably the most approachable of the three) than Timothy Hugh on Hyperion, and his playing conveys a sense of organic growth throughout this extensive nine-movement work, with its concealed portraiture of Shostakovich and Rostropovich. Torleif Thedeen is no less convincing than Wispelwey or Hugh in his complete recording on BIS, but the excessive resonance and very close focus of the sound conveys a distracting array of extra-musical sounds, though Wispelwey himself is not completely innocent here, with occasional intrusive grunts and intakes of breath. Nevertheless, the comparison with Thedeen is instructive, for his overall conception of the suites matches Wispelwey's to a surprising extent.
Wispelwey's tense and alert response to the First Suite, often much brisker than either of his recent rivals, generates a tersely reasoned argument of craggy, unbending intensity; an approach quite unlike that of the more restrained, almost archaic-sounding Hugh. This makes for greater elasticity and palpable tension, only occasionally relieved in the ''Canto'' sections, and as Michael Kennedy suggested (6/88), the resemblance of the ''Bordone'' to the opening statement of the Elgar Concerto must be more than mere coincidence.
Wispelwey's meditative, introspective account of the Second Suite is equally provocative, yet deeply satisfying, with the withdrawn atmosphere of the Andante Lento movement having a haunting and unsettling presence. Of the recent performances currently before the public, Wispelwey's is certainly among the very finest, and can be strongly recommended. Even though it does not challenge Rostropovich who, for some reason, seemed reluctant to record the Third Suite, this disc offers a viable alternative to both Hugh and Thedeen.'