German cellist Leonard Elschenbroich, who is playing Brahms with the NSO tonight, here gives an account of his deep immersion in the music of Alfred Schnittke. Elschenbroich and pianist Petr Limonov respond as vividly to the bleak and musically disembodied in Schnittke as he does to the composer's sometimes super-naive-sounding adoption of bygone styles. The biggest, and most impressive achievement is the First Cello Sonata of 1978. The Suite in the Old Style is done with velvet gloves, and the high contrasts of Madrigal: In memoriam Oleg Kagan and Musica nostalgica match those of Elschenbroich's own Shards of Schnittke, which he wrote in 2008 when he was in his early 20s. url.ie/dzi7