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Search Beat > Arts > Music > Styles > Classical Music > Featured Composer > Edward Elgar

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biography

Stately, reserved, velvety, and as comfortable as an expensive, broken-in pair of slippers and a smoking jacket, the music of Elgar (1857-1934) was the first important British music since Henry Purcell's. His debts to Wagner and Brahms nothwithstanding, Elgar was the quintessential Edwardian gentleman, full of understated eloquence. Here are his essential recordings.

recommended recordings

	*Elgar: Cello Concerto, Sea Pictures / Du Pr�, Barbirolli [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]*
	Composer: Sir Edward Elgar Conductor: Sir John Barbirolli Performer: Jacqueline Du Pr�, Dame Janet Baker Ensemble: London Symphony Orchestra Emd/Emi Classics - #56219 / September 16, 1997 Click here for more information
This is rightly regarded as the finest recording of Elgar's attractive and elegiac Cello Concerto. It's held in almost irrationally high esteem in the UK, largely because of the universal affection for Jacqueline Du Pré, the wife of Daniel Barenboim, whose early death from multiple sclerosis cut short what would have been a stellar career. This disc is equally noteworthy for Janet Baker's magnificent singing of the Sea Pictures, the composer's only orchestral song cycle. It's not Elgar's...Read more

	*Elgar: Enigma Variations, etc / Zinman, Baltimore SO*
	Composer: Sir Edward Elgar Conductor: David Zinman Ensemble: Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Telarc - #80192 / September 28, 1989 Click here for more information
These are performances of such outstanding authority that even the British have praised them as among the very best available. The Baltimore Symphony plays with the utmost conviction and enthusiasm--Cockaigne really rocks, and the finale of Enigma, with a very well balanced optional organ part thrown in, is a sonic showcase. In fact, Telarc's sound is the best this music has ever been offered, with an especially impressive deep bass extension. There are many fine recordings of the Enigma...Read more

	*Elgar: The Music Makers, The Dream of Gerontius (British Composers) / Boult, et al.*
	Composer: Sir Edward Elgar Conductor: Sir Adrian Boult Performer: Dame Janet Baker, Nicolai Gedda, et al. Ensemble: London Philharmonic Chorus, London Philharmonic Orchestra, et al. Emd/Emi Classics - #66540 / January 12, 1999 Click here for more information
Elgar's Dream of Gerontius is, in effect, a sung tone poem and resides at the core of English choral music; it is the supreme achievement among Elgar's large-scale works. Interestingly, its premiere came in the last months of the 19th century, a time, much like our own, when fluctuating styles and experimentation existed alongside a lingering and powerful devotion to the older, traditional ways. Thus, the release of this classic 1975 recording (intelligently paired with another sumptuous,...Read more

	*Elgar: Violin Concerto / Perlman, Barenboim, Chicago SO*
	Composer: Sir Edward Elgar, Ernest Chausson Conductor: Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta Performer: Itzhak Perlman Ensemble: Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic Orchestra Uni/Deutsche Grammophon - #45564 / March 12, 1996 Click here for more information
Perlman's Elgar has always caused consternation among English critics, largely because it's so much better played from a purely technical point of view than any performance by an English violinist. With its relatively swift tempos, the performance is sometimes judged to be lacking in repose and "inwardness," whatever that is. All of this is complete nonsense. Perlman's playing of this extremely long and difficult concerto places it squarely in the grand Romantic tradition, which is precisely...Read more

	Elgar: Violin Concerto; Vaughan Williams / Kennedy, Rattle
	Composer: Sir Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan Williams Conductor: Simon Rattle Performer: Nigel Kennedy Ensemble: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Emd/Emi Classics - #56413 / January 20, 1998 Click here for more information
In July 1997, after a five-year self-imposed exile from the world of classical music, Nigel Kennedy--now known simply as Kennedy--returned to the scene of one of his earlier triumphs with this incident-packed account of the Elgar concerto. It's a reading that, in the first two movements, at least, displays a bristling temperament, rapt ardor, and go-for-broke spontaneity rare in a studio recording. In the opening Allegro, Kennedy's superbly commanding first entry as well as his ravishing handling of the "Windflower" second subject movingly recall Albert Sammons's miraculous 1929 recording with Sir Henry Wood (and there can be no higher praise than that). Oddly, the finale is not quite on the same level, being somewhat too brusque and calculated for comfort (Kennedy's playing in the exquisite cadenza was more moving in his earlier recording with Vernon Handley). Overall, though, it's a thrilling display, brimming with charisma and imaginative insight. Kennedy and Rattle's incredibly leisurely, self-consciously luxuriant way with The Lark Ascending (one of Vaughan Williams's most sublimely evocative nature poems) will probably not be everyone's cup of tea, but their performance of the Elgar simply must be experienced. --Andrew Achenbach

	*Elgar: Symphonies 1 & 2, etc / Davis, BBC Symphony*
	Composer: Sir Edward Elgar Conductor: Andrew Davis Ensemble: B. B. C. Symphony Orchestra Wea/Atlantic/Teldec - #18951 / October 28, 1997 Click here for more information
Conductor Andrew Davis suffers from occasional bouts with that dreaded British bug--chronic dullness. He's not by any means a bad conductor, but you can always tell when he feels energized by the music he's playing or recording. Elgar is one of his great loves; that much is clear. These are his second recordings of the two symphonies, and they are excellent in every respect. Davis shapes both with a firm hand and a clear view of his final destination. Teldec's recorded sound is especially fine,...Read more

works & recordings

Complete List of Works and Recordings

Browse Edward Elgar
General Anthems Arias Cantatas Caprices Character Pieces Choruses Concertos Dances Elegies Hymns Incidental Music Introductions Marches Minuets Odes	Offertory Oratorios Overtures Partsong Quartets Quintets Romances Serenades Sonatas Song Cycle Songs Suites Symphonies Tone Poems Variations Voluntaries

resources

Critiques
MIDIs
Personal Pages
Specific Works

Edward Elgar - Web site of The Elgar Society, Elgar Birthplace and Elgar Foundation.
The Symphony - Edward Elgar - From library.advanced.org
Sir Edward Elgar - short bio. - From guildmusic.com
Edward Elgar Birthplace Museum - The home of Sir Edward Elgar, Britain's most renowned composers, including: the Enigma Variations and Land of Hope and Glory.
Sir Edward Elgar - the Locomotive - Built by The English Electric Co. Ltd. At their Vulcan foundry works Newton-Le-Willows, Lancashire. Named after the 19th Century English composer.
Composers: Edward Elgar - From futurenet.com
Edward Elgar - short bio - from Boosey Publishing.
Sir Edward Elgar on Hyperion - Catalogue from Hyperion Records
Elgar's Third Completed - 60 Years After Death - by James Campbell from Vienna Online, e-zine of Geocities' Vienna Neighbourhood
Sir Edward William Elgar - From Polygram
Grave of Sir Edward Elgar - From findagrave.com
Elgar's Enigma Variations - Describes the only recording of Elgar's Enigma Variations performed on the composer's own piano
Edward Elgar - Biography, work list, performance list.
Ancestral Voices - Essay on Elgar's Third Symphony by Arthur Butterworth.
Edward Elgar (1857-1934) - Message board and live chat about the life and works.

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Critiques
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Specific Works