dating, since I've probably written about him already this year.
He was born 150 years ago June 2nd, and the composer of the Pomp and Circumstance marches is receiving the full treatment. His cello concerto was played the first night of the London Prom concerts (and Land of Hope and Glory, the choral version of the trio of the first Pomp-and march, always is in the Last Prom concert each year); and a number of his other works are sprinkled throughout the season- with the effect that his range as a composer, the many-sidedness of the portrait- is harder to hide ;) .
I picked up an issue of BBC Music Magazine back in July dedicated to the Elgar anniversary containing a CD of an Elgar 2nd symphony performance conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent (from a Prom Concert several decades ago - a friend in the UK had attended the event, enjoyed it, recommended the magazine to me in part because the performance was quite good and had not been released in any form between then and now *g*- have now borrowed another recording of the same work from the local library and will go listen to both for the first time I think and compare them; I've heard the work before but not really well.)
Anyway, the magazine also contained recommendations for many lesser-known works by the composer- songs (solo and chorus), music for plays- and unusually good performances of better-known works. (Not an unusual survey of course, but for a composer I've only been slowly getting into over the years- starting with the sometimes quiet, sad 1918-9 string quartet and cello concerto, gradually getting to like his more "characteristic" (truly?) other works also...- a useful one!... anyhow, this is relevant to what little follows :) ...
A set of his choral songs, one specifically recommended in the magazine issue in fact, was performed in one of the Proms last week- also one of the same sets I heard during my last visit to New York City and Long Island, when I stopped in at Lincoln Center Library and listened for about a half-hour to a CD of unaccompanied ("a cappella") choral music of his- a set written in 1907, four songs, "There is Sweet Music" (Tennyson) (difficult to sing, since the men first enter in G major then pause, the women then enter in A-flat - think about trying to tune your entrance properly!!... - many choirs refused to sing this, I gather, when it was first presented!... followed by settings of "Deep in my Soul", "O Wild West Wind" and a poem of Elgar's own, "Owls", described as "nihilistic" (and it is). (A set - opus 53 - of four remarkable brief-ish choral works from the time of his first symphony, written in Rome, and not the only such set he wrote throughout his career, either... one I did not hear - or rather- haven't heard yet, though it was on that same CD at the library, so I intend to return to it (I think maybe the library here has it too) - was "Go, Song of Mine" - which was more popular during his lifetime than those, anyway...)
