Unable to persuade Elgar to write a concerto for his instrument, violist Lionel Tertis transcribed the composer’s Cello Concerto. Elgar was pleased to conduct Tertis in a 1930 performance of it. New York-born viola hotshot David Aaron Carpenter, 23, has customized Tertis’ transcription and allied with conductor Christoph Eschenbach for an excellent studio recording. Carpenter’s bold viola does justice to this classic’s autumnal hues, while offering lithe phrasing few cellists can match. Alfred Schnittke was born the year Elgar died, and his 1985 Viola Concerto is a classic of another kind—a postmodern, Bach-meets-Shostakovich psychodrama. Competition is stiff here, not only from dedicatee Yuri Bashmet but from young Frenchman Antoine Tamestit, whose 2008 Ambroisie disc is an incredibly subtle marvel. But Carpenter’s darker explosiveness works, too.

David Aaron Carpenter is an excellent young violist. His technique is brilliant, but not showy—his tone is rich and pure. Born in New York in 1986, Carpenter has won several awards, including first prize in the 2006 Naumburg Viola Competition, and is enjoying a successful international career. There is much to recommend this debut CD.

Dedicated to enhancing the public’s appreciation of his instrument and to enriching its repertoire, he chose two innovative works for this recording: Schnittke’s Viola Concerto and Elgar’s Cello Concerto in the viola transcription by the great English violist Lionel Tertis (approved by the composer, with some emendations by Carpenter). The two works make an interesting combination, not only because Elgar (1857–1934) died the year Schnittke (1934–1998) was born, but because in some ways these two works are each other’s opposites.

Schnittke’s concerto was inspired by its dedicatee, Yuri Bashmet (one of Carpenter’s illustrious teachers). Unmistakably influenced by Shostakovich, it is full of uninhibited, obsessive emotionality, agonized outcries, and sardonic, distorted rhythms. Elgar’s, despite some moments of humor and subdued passion, is all English dignity, introspection, and melancholy expressiveness. The Elgar is intriguing, though the inevitable octave jumps are jarring and one misses those sonorous low E’s.

Carpenter’s style, especially his throbbing vibrato, is much better suited to the Schnittke: his performance eloquently captures its volatile character and mercurial moods. In the Elgar, the rhythmic liberties and dynamics are often exaggerated, and the extroverted emotional abandon runs counter to the work’s noble restraint. The buildups and climaxes are most convincing.

A star violist may be on the horizon. David Aaron Carpenter is a young American who makes his disc debut with recordings of a viola arrangement of Elgar’s Cello Concerto and of Alfred Schnittke’s Viola Concerto. Christoph Eschenbach, a champion of Carpenter, conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Elgar’s autumnal concerto floats on air in its viola arrangement, and Carpenter has a robust sound and mercurial personality. Schnittke’s concerto, which obsesses over cadences and short motifs while making radical stylist shifts, was written for the Russian virtuoso Yuri Bashmet, perhaps the most celebrated violist of our day. Carpenter goes to town with the score.