Elgar: Viola Concerto - Bloch: Suite for Viola and Orchestra

An Elgar Viola Concerto? A discovery that passed you by? Well, no: it’s actually the Elgar Cello Concerto, adapted back in 1929 by the then-star violist Lionel Tertis. This recording features Tertis’ worthy successor Timothy Ridout, making the case for what’s in fact a minimally invasive adaptation, and playing an extra-large viola whose added resonance compensates for the missing heft of the cello. With agile virtuosity and a conductor, Martyn Brabbins, who ensures the soloist is never swamped, you hear Elgar’s familiar music refreshed. And there’s equal freshness in the unfamiliar coupling of the Bloch Suite (written in 1919, the same year as the Elgar). Sounding like a postcard from the Far East (Bloch’s obsession at the time), its “orientalism” can be pantomime. But as redemptively presented here, it has an ear-catching appeal.