Pieter Wispelwey and Piers Lane excavate hidden codes embedded within Soviet-era masterworks, framed by Benjamin Britten’s First Cello Suite.

Wispelwey, celebrated for his fearless interpretations, reveals how Britten’s seemingly straightforward variations contain their own quiet revolutions.

From the rebellious wit and restrained elegance of Sergei Prokofiev’s Cello Sonata, composed during Stalin’s oppressive final years, through to the emotional vulnerability of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Sonata for cello, these charged Russian voices bookend Britten’s Suite No.1. 

Through masterful musical storytelling, Night I reveals how music’s deepest truths emerge when expression meets resistance. In Wispelwey’s interpretations, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall transforms into a sanctuary where socio-political pressures dissolve and the essential human voice remains.