Martyn Brabbins | Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

Gramophone Awards 2023
Finalist - Concerto

Limelight Magazine
February 2023
Recording of the Month

Presto Recording of the Week
20th January 2023

Gramophone Magazine
February 2023
Editor's Choice

Timothy Ridout (viola), BBC Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins

Elgar: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85
Bloch, E: Suite for viola & orchestra

Timothy Ridout gives us the opportunity to discover the splendid viola version of Elgar’s famous Cello Concerto – an arrangement approved by the composer, who conducted its premiere in 1930. In addition to this deeply moving work, he gives us a powerful, poetic reading of Bloch’s all too rarely performed Suite for Viola and Orchestra, in which the Swiss composer indulged his fascination with the Orient.

"Ridout’s viola sings with such ease and presence in the lower reaches that you may well find yourself forgetting that you aren’t listening to ‘the real thing’. Brabbins’s sensitive weighing of balance undoubtedly helps, only letting the brass fully off the leash in the passages when the soloist is silent and bringing out slightly different colours in those moments where the viola steps into the role of accompanist...A shoo-in for viola-philes, then – but also a compelling addition to the Elgar concerto’s distinguished discography on its own terms." - Katherine Cooper, Presto Music, 20th January 2023.