Who's calling? order yagara Indeed, the centrepiece was anything but a warm and cuddly birthday tribute. One of Britten's toughest scores, the 'Cello Symphony' of 1963 was the second of five works he wrote for Rostropovich, and it remains something of a rarity in the concert hall. The hard-won rejoicing in the closing pages of its Passacaglia finale is unexpected after the work's angry opening and its long and anguished discourse. Yet Kirill Karabits, the BSO's superb principal conductor, took control of his forces impressively and shaped the performance with complete naturalness.