Edward Elgar

Synopsis

Today we celebrate the birthday of that quintessentially British composer, Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, recipient of the Order of Merit, member of the Royal Victorian Order, and one-time Master of the King's Musick. Elgar was born on today's date in 1857, midway through the 19th century, and died, on February 23, 1934, well into the 20th.

Today, Elgar's music seems to evoke both royal pomp and ceremony in urban London as well as images of the green and rolling hills of the English countryside.

While on the surface the ultimate British "insider," the paradox of the man is that Elgar himself felt very much an "outsider." As a concise Wikipedia entry puts it, "In musical circles dominated by academics, Elgar was a self-taught composer; in Protestant Britain, his Roman Catholicism was regarded with suspicion; and in the class-conscious society of Victorian and Edwardian Britain, he was acutely sensitive about his humble origins, even after he achieved recognition."

Many of Elgar's works were instant hits, but many were not, and had to wait decades before landing a secure place in concert repertory. In the early 20th century, when music strove to be "modern," Elgar's works seemed unabashedly old-fashioned. Yet, Elgar was one of the first to take the new-fangled gramophone record seriously, and so an impressive legacy of vintage recordings of Elgar conducting his own music exists for 21st century listeners to sample via even more new-fangled technology like computer downloads.

Music Played in Today's Program

Sir Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934) Nimrod,fr Enigma Variations, Op. 36Royal Albert Hall Orchestra; Sir Edward Elgar, cond. EMI 66994

On This Day

Births

• 1835 - Russian composer, pianist and conductor Nicolai Rubinstein (brother of Anton), in Moscow (Gregorian date: June 14);

• 1857 - English composer Sir Edward Elgar, in Broadheath (near Worcester);

• 1863 - German composer and conductor Felix Weingartner, in Zara, Dalmatia (now Zadar, Croatia);

Deaths

• 1937 - French composer and organist Louis Vierne, age 66, in Paris at Notre Dame Cathedral while playing an organ recital;

Premieres

• 1914 - Miaskovsky: Symphony No. 1, in Pavlovsk (Gregorian date: June 15);

• 1937 - Berg: opera "Lulu" (Acts 1 & 2 only), in Zürich at the Stadtstheater; The first complete performance of the 3-act version of this opera with Berg's unfinished Act 3 (arranged by Friedrich Cerha) premiered in Paris on February 24, 1979;

• 1953 - Bliss: "Processional" in London, at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II;

• 1953 - Ginastera: "Variaciones Concertantes" in Buenos Aires;

• 1953 - Walton: "Coronation Te Deum" and "Orb and Sceptre" March, in London, at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II;

• 1954 - Leroy Anderson: "Bugler's Holiday" at a Decca recording session in New York City, with the composer conducting; The three cornet soloist for this classic recording were Robert Cusamann, Carl Poole and Melven Solomon;

• 1983 - Henze: opera "The English Cat," in Schwetzingen at the Schlosstheater;

Others

• 1711 - The opera season at the Queen's Theater in London ends with a production of Handel's opera, "Rinaldo," (Gregorian date: June 13) which had opened there on February 24 (Gregorian date: March 7) the same year; This was the first Handel opera produced in London, and the first Italian opera written specifically composed for the London stage, and proved extremely popular;

• 1938 - At the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, N.H., Amy Beach begins work on a Piano Trio based on some of her earlier works; She would finish the trio fifteen days later (June 18th) and publish it as her Op. 150.