Happy 150th!

I tend to approach music in cycles. There was a year that I decided to learn all of the Schubert songs after which I delved into the Beethoven String Quartets. Recently (and coincidentally with the 150th anniversary of his birth) it has been Edward Elgar.

In the May Gramophone, Andrew Farach-Colton recounts his initial late acquaintance with Elgar and the disparaging references to him in American publications. I can only concur with that experience. Apart from high school graduations at which the Pomp and Circumstance March was mandatory, my experience with Elgar was limited. He was barely mentioned while I was at music school (I can remember hearing any of his music there) and my first direct experience was singing some of his choral pieces as a professional church soloist.

Perhaps as a reaction to the opera of my daily life, these days I'm immersed in his orchestral music. I've been spending some time with "Enigma" (of which I had an unlistened-to recording for many years), which I've heard only after studying the two symphonies. It took some time to warm to it, but now I'm overwhelmed by The Dream of Gerontius.

I think to denigrate his music as old-hat and pretentious is doing it a great injustice. It is beautifully crafted and dramatically effective music. I can think of no greater work written for that instrument than the Cello Concerto and the power of the "Enigma" is, I think, timeless.

It has been said that he wrote "the soundtrack for the British Empire", but I think he speaks to all nations and musicians (R. Strauss and Hans Richter were big fans) and despite his aversion to Americans ("the lowest of the human race") it has a magic that transcends all national boundaries.

Jessica Duchen points us to Richard Morrison's article in the Times (complete with downloads) and of course the BBC is celebrating in a big way.