Gilding his already-illustrious discography, violist Timothy Ridout takes home the 2023 Gramophone Award for Concerto in recognition of his daring recordings of Elgar’s Cello Concerto and Bloch’s Suite for Viola and Orchestra with Martyn Brabbins and BBC Symphony Orchestra. Praising him for taking on Lionel Tertis’s 1929 viola transcription of Elgar’s legendary concerto, Charlotte Gardner, writing for Gramophone, labelled the recording ​“a magisterial performance,” going on to write ​“Ridout’s lovingly captured tones are so very big, rich, strong, dark and vibrant that you have to remind yourself that when the orchestra eventually picks up from him to present the theme it’s the viola section that delivers it – he and they sound like two such different, albeit mutually complementary, beasts.”

Ridout will perform a solo recital at Wigmore Hall on 27 October.