This Scordatura Album is the second In Memoriam album in honour of my son Dorian. It features two illustrious masterpieces written for cello in alternative, darker tunings: the Bach Suite with the top string lowered by a whole tone and the Kodály Sonata with the two bottom strings lowered by a semitone. Both pieces are fierce, resilient and profound and although painted in dark colours, they comfort us with their show of sheer musical power and luminous inventiveness.

These are fresh, lithe and lean studio performances of old favourites, given by a fine Dutch cellist with an alert conductor-less Bremen chamber orchestra. Most arresting is the Saint-Saëns, freed from the overblown dramatic intensity familiar from performances by some 'big' cello virtuosi. The outer movements, are separated by an archaic 'escaped minuet', to quote Wispelwey's intelligent notes; the finale is an expanded version of the first. Balance is good, the cello a little more forward than it would generally be in concert. Good impressions are maintained in all the other items, the rococo variations light as befits a tribute to Mozart, the Bruch melody soulful and involving.

Winner of the BBC Music Magazine 2009 Award for technical excellence, this disc presents music composed by Benjamin Britten and Dmitri Shostakovich, two striking personalities from recent 20th-century musical history, who were also united by an intimate friendship. They both also shared reciprocal friendship with the inspiring and energetic Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who gave the premier of both the three Suites for cello by Britten solo and the Second Cello Concerto in G by Shostakovich.