In addition to one of the central pillars of his instrument’s solo literature, the French cellist offers two 20th-century classics for the medium. Written in 1915, the Kodály sonata is a work of major stature: the composer was proved right when he said that ‘in 25 years no cellist will be accepted who has not played it’. Rostropovich commissioned Dutilleux’s tribute to the great musical patron Paul Sacher, premièring it in 1982.