Works for chamber orchestra performed by A Far Cry with guest violist Hellen Callus on February 2, 2014.

• Bach: Concerto in E Flat Major for Viola, Strings, and Basso Continuo
• Elgar: Introduction and Allegro, Op, 47

The Elgar, though written as an introduction, will come second on our podcast. Clocking in at about 14 minutes, the piece is a rich work of post-Romantic passion, written for string quartet and string orchestra – a sort of modern concerto grosso. In another nod to earlier styles, Elgar also inserts a devilishly difficult fugue, which comes around the middle of the Allegro, in place of a more conventional development section.

Before the Elgar, we’ll hear Bach’s Viola Concerto in E-flat Major. This is a somewhat curious piece. There’s substantial evidence that Bach did, in fact, write a viola concerto made up of these movements—or ones very much like them—but the manuscript itself was lost. The score we’ll hear performed is actually a reconstruction, assembled by a contemporary musicologist, from three surviving Bach works that are believed to contain fragments of the lost concerto. The performance we’ll hear of this rediscovered and little-known piece features the sought-after violist Helen Callus, whose performance makes a compelling case for this work’s place in the repertory.