Elgar 29 Jul - 2 Aug

[Anastasius]

I'm usually listening to something classical when I'm in the workshop making furniture. Just once every so often I hear something new or a different performance of an already well-known piece and it' down tools, lights off, sit down and listen.

So it was today. The Hickox Gerontius with Felicity Palmer and Arthur Davies. By the time it had finished, I had tears running down my cheeks. Sublime performance.

[LMcD]

I'm usually listening to something classical when I'm in the workshop making furniture. Just once every so often I hear something new or a different performance of an already well-known piece and it' down tools, lights off, sit down and listen.

So it was today. The Hickox Gerontius with Felicity Palmer and Arthur Davies. By the time it had finished, I had tears running down my cheeks. Sublime performance.

Increasingly, I get emotional when listening to Elgar - I think he represents something that we've lost, or are in serious danger of losing. I greatly enjoyed today's programme, which included a splendid recording, new to me, of 'Cockaigne' with the LPO under Slatkin (who can also be found conducting a very fine 'Enigma' on YouTube). My only minor gripe is that it would have been nice to include something with Barbirolli, as I believe it's the 49th (gulp!) anniversary of his death. I'm really looking forward to the next 4 episodes!

[DracoM]

Simply canNOT do with Elgar's orchestral stuff.
Can a fan tell me why I should listen?
Now, his chamber music is an entirely other listen.

[visualnickmos]

Simply canNOT do with Elgar's orchestral stuff.
Can a fan tell me why I should listen?
Now, his chamber music is an entirely other listen.

No reason why you should; the choice is entirely yours.

[LMcD]

Simply canNOT do with Elgar's orchestral stuff.
Can a fan tell me why I should listen?
Now, his chamber music is an entirely other listen.

Well …… to offer a few examples - IMHO there are very few pieces that match the sheer excitement of the finale of the 'Enigma Variations' or the emotional intensity of the last few pages of 'The Dream of Gerontius', or 'Nimrod'. I think his great achievement is that he is disciplined enough to pour his heart and soul into his music and yet avoid the danger of wallowing. And, in contrast, there's some wonderfully delicate scoring in the 'Wand of Youth' suites. And YES, some of his music IS almost blatantly stirring, but it's never bombastic or self-referential in the way that, say, Richard Strauss can be. It was the slow movement of the 2nd symphony that encouraged to move on from the ' musical lollipops' we were offered at school, and start my own exploration of classical music. That same slow movement moves and inspires me just as much today as it did then. It could be argued that great works are those which repay repeated listening to different interpretations from different eras: I have more recordings of the Elgar symphonies than of any other works. Listening to the extract from 'Gerontius' this morning, a shiver went down my spine as I suddenly realized that I was listening to a phrase that Anthony Payne incorporated - consciously or unconsciously - in his '3rd symphony'.
As the years have passed, his music has come to mean more and more to me - and that includes the chamber works, which I also admire greatly.

[gradus]

I'm usually listening to something classical when I'm in the workshop making furniture. Just once every so often I hear something new or a different performance of an already well-known piece and it' down tools, lights off, sit down and listen.

So it was today. The Hickox Gerontius with Felicity Palmer and Arthur Davies. By the time it had finished, I had tears running down my cheeks. Sublime performance.

Felicity Palmer gave 'Allelujah' some welly! Really terrific singing from the heart from all of them.

[cloughie]

Simply canNOT do with Elgar's orchestral stuff.
Can a fan tell me why I should listen?
Now, his chamber music is an entirely other listen.

Two absolutely phasmagorical symphonies for the top of the list and loads of other wonderful stuff - I like the CC less, probably because it is heard too much but his other bigger orchestral works and smaller pieces are regulars on my CD player. But if your musical candle is left unlit - then that is your personal preference.

[teamsaint]

Simply canNOT do with Elgar's orchestral stuff.
Can a fan tell me why I should listen?
Now, his chamber music is an entirely other listen.

Have you heard this piece by Stephen Johnson ?

I found it a great listen at the time.

Discovering Music, on the first symphony.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018sw44

[Edgy 2]

Simply canNOT do with Elgar's orchestral stuff.
Can a fan tell me why I should listen?
Now, his chamber music is an entirely other listen.

Absolutely no reason you should listen,the list of composers I cannot do with would probably baffle you.
I can’t do without Elgar.
I swear I heard the second subject of the 1st Symphony’s scherzo (I know he didn’t call it such) as the wind blew through the trees and long grass in Herefordshire many years ago.
Elgar said music is in the air all around us,so I know exactly where he got that bit from.

[gurnemanz]

I like but don't love the symphonies. I do love In the South and have been to Alassio

[LMcD]

I'm not particularly patriotic or jingoistic, but quite a few of Elgar's works - not just the Pomp and Circumstance marches, the symphonies and the concertos - bring a lump to my throat and a tear to my eye. It's not just what the music seems to be saying to me and what it represents, but also the way it's structured and scored. And the fact that some of the finest interpreters of his works, including Haitink, Solti, Previn, Barenboim, Navarra and Monteux to name just a few - are not English suggests that there is a lot more to his music than Last Night of the Proms nationalism.
I can't conceive of life without Mozart, but my life would also be immeasurably impoverished without Elgar.

[gurnemanz]

Saint-Saëns Piano Trios from Gould Trio. Lovely sound and good late evening listening.

[LMcD]

Saint-Saëns Piano Trios from Gould Trio. Lovely sound and good late evening listening.

And very nice they are too - are you suggesting they're a touch Elgarian? (Or that Elgar was influenced by Saint-Saens?)

[gurnemanz]

Wrong thread! Should have been on What are are listening to now. Never mind.

[makropulos]

I'm not particularly patriotic or jingoistic, but quite a few of Elgar's works - not just the Pomp and Circumstance marches, the symphonies and the concertos - bring a lump to my throat and a tear to my eye. It's not just what the music seems to be saying to me and what it represents, but also the way it's structured and scored. And the fact that some of the finest interpreters of his works, including Haitink, Solti, Previn, Barenboim, Navarra and Monteux to name just a few - are not English suggests that there is a lot more to his music than Last Night of the Proms nationalism.
I can't conceive of life without Mozart, but my life would also be immeasurably impoverished without Elgar.

I like that point very much. Elgar's appeal to non-British musicians is (and always has been) just as intense and personal (Haitink, Solti, Svetlanov et al) as it is to Brits. They clearly see (and hear) an composer whose appeal is international. In works like the symphonies and concertos he's never struck me as particularly British anyway, but simply as a great and marvellous composer. Like you, my life would be immensely the poorer without Elgar, particularly (if I had to limit things) the symphonies and Gerontius. Incidentally, I have a very early full score of Gerontius (inscribed by Elgar) which includes not only the German translation that was used a few times, but also a French translation. So clearly Novello had far-reaching hopes for it!