The English composer Sir Edward Elgar (1857–1934) was one of the most prominent figures in late Romantic music. Elgar's works are celebrated for their emotional depth, lush orchestration, and quintessentially English character, though they also show a cosmopolitan influence. Here are seven great works by this late Romantic master.
Best of Elgar: seven great works
1. Serenade for Strings (1888-92)
Elgar’s earliest masterpiece shows him already a master of writing for stringed instruments, with an infectiously lilting first movement, and a contemplative slow movement. Composed over four years early in his career, the Serenade for Strings remains a cornerstone of the string orchestra repertoire, much loved for its lyricism, intimacy, and emotional depth.
Elgar composed the Serenade shortly after his marriage to Alice Roberts, who was a significant influence on his early career. As such, this work is often associated with Elgar's gratitude and love for Alice. He in fact considered it a relatively minor work among his output, but looked on it very affectionately.
The Serenade is almost a perfect Elgar primer, as it shows off many of the stylistic traits that would come to define him. These include lyrical melodies, rich harmonies, and an introspective, reflective mood. You can hear the influence of Brahms, whom Elgar much admired, in the writing for strings. Alongside, this, though, there's a pastoral quality that is unmistakably English.
Recommended recording: Sinfonia of London/John Barbirolli EMI 567 2402
2. Enigma Variations (1899)
Though the ‘Enigma’ title continues to intrigue scholars, this series of musical portraits of Elgar’s wife and friends remains ever-vivid, especially the noble ‘Nimrod’.
The piece is structured as a theme followed by 14 variations. Highlights among the latter include Variation VII, a portrait of Arthur Troyte Griffith, a Malvern architect and one of Elgar's firmest friends. This variation good-naturedly mimics Griffith's enthusiastic incompetence on the piano.
Then there's Variation XI, which depicts in music George Robertson Sinclair, organist at Hereford Cathedral. Interestingly, this one has little to do with its dedicatee, being more about his great bulldog, Dan, a well-known local character.
We hear, in the very first bar, Dan falling down the steep bank into the River Wye; bars 2 and 3 are the sound of his paddling frantically upstream to find somewhere to swim ashore; and barb 5 features his bark of joy at being on day land. One of the most arresting depictions of animals in music.
Recommended recording:
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Adrian Boult EMI 764 0152
3. The Dream of Gerontius (1899-1900)
Elgar’s dramatic oratorio, depicting the journey of a soul from death through purgatory to heaven, sounds in the best sense operatic, rather than a stilted work for the church. A recent recording featuring Nicky Spence in the title role was the Recording of the Month in our July 2024 issue.
Recommended recording:
Richard Lewis, Janet Baker; Hallé Choir & Orchestra/John Barbirolli EMI 391 9782
4. Symphony No. 2 (1909-11)
The more flamboyant of Elgar’s two completed symphonies, the Second characteristically contrasts opening swagger with a sense of brooding apprehension and reflection, and includes a nightmarish whirlwind for a Scherzo, plus a beautiful, elegiac Larghetto that rivals the slow movement of Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. 5 as one of English music's most beautiful moments.
Recommended recording:
Hallé Orchestra/John Barbirolli EMI 968 9242
5. Falstaff (1913)
One of two famous Falstaffs in the classical repertoire(the other is by Giuseppe Verdi), Elgar’s great tone poem is a depiction of Sir John Falstaff, the rotund and tragicomic protagonist from Shakespeare’s plays Henry IV and The Merry Wives of Windsor. It may be less well known than the Cello Concerto, the Enigma Variations or the Pomp and Circumstance Marches (the latter familiar from Coronations and more), but Elgar considered Falstaff one of his finest creations.
6. Piano Quintet (1918-19)
Elgar didn't write a huge amount of chamber music, but much of what he did leave us is of the very highest quality. Two masterpieces date from near the end of his composing career, and are similar in mood and setting. Alongside 1918's String Quartet, the Piano Quintet of 1918-19 is a haunting masterpiece.
There's a ghostly atmosphere to both the Moderato first movement and the Andante finale, believed to be inspired by a copse of dead trees near the composer's home in Sussex. The beautiful, sighing Adagio movement, meanwhile, finds Elgar at his most lyrical and Brahmsian.
7. Cello Concerto (1918-19)
Elgar’s final masterpiece, written in the aftermath of the First World War and shortly before the death of his wife Alice, is noble and restrained yet unmistakably expresses grief for an irretrievably lost era. It's become an absolute cornerstone of the cello repertoire, and received some of its most memorable interpretations from the great British cellist Jacqueline du Pré. One of the greatest cello concertos, and one of the most eloquent and nakedly emotional works in the classical repertoire. It's been blessed with some great recordings, too.
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Recommended recording:
Jacqueline du Pré; LSO/John Barbirolli
EMI 562 8862
