Terry Williams seeks out the finest recordings of a work that, for all his recent other successes, proved a tough nut for the composer to crack
The composer
Thanks not least to his own letters and his wife Alice’s diaries, Elgar’s life was as closely documented as any, and yet as a character he remains strangely elusive. For someone apparently so rooted in a sense of place, he moved around a lot, living for periods in London (twice), Malvern, Herefordshire and eventually Sussex, and his popular characterisation as the quintessential Englishman belies a man with a very pan-European outlook. His music, meanwhile, ranges in emotion from the fond depictions of close friends in the Enigma Variations of 1899 to the darker, despondent world of the post-war Cello Concerto.
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The work
By the end of the 19th century, Elgar had made an indelible mark on the British music scene, primarily with his groundbreaking Enigma Variations, the first four of his Pomp and Circumstance Marches, the Introduction and Allegro for Strings, the Cockaigne Overture and, despite a disastrous premiere, what would become his most performed choral work, The Dream of Gerontius. But he knew that, to consolidate his international status, what he needed most was a symphony. And that proved a daunting task. (love) and a massive hope in the future’. He had turned 50 when it finally saw the light of day. The memorable opening theme, marked nobilmente e semplice (nobly and simply), came to him whilst holidaying with his family in Italy in 1907, and he then worked tirelessly, pulling together the threads that had been gestating for almost a decade, eventually completing the work at his Hereford home in 1908.
‘Gentlemen, let us now rehearse the greatest symphony of modern times, written by the greatest modern composer
The First Symphony, to quote Elgar, ‘has no programme beyond a wide experience of life’
For a number of years, he had seriously considered writing a symphony in honour of the ill-fated General Gordon (of Khartoum), which might have proven popular in Britain as Gordon had become a national hero. But in time the project was dropped, either to avoid any criticism of jingoism or simply because Elgar didn’t yet feel up to the task. And then, following the success of the Enigma Variations in 1899, further encouragement for a symphony had come from his staunchest champ
