Elgar & Schnittke Viola Concertos; Philharmonia Orchestra; Christoph Eschenbach

(Ondine)

This debut recording features violist David Aaron Carpenter playing Edward Elgar’s “Cello Concerto in E Minor” (1919) and Alfred Schnittke’s “Viola Concerto” (1985), conducted by Christoph Eschenbach. Carpenter adapted much of the Elgar concerto himself, using an arrangement by violist Lionel Tertis as a template. David Patrick Stearns of The Philadelphia Inquirer called the CD “impressive.”