Who was Elgar?
Edward Elgar (1857-1934) rose from being a proficient amateur in rural England to being an internationally recognised composer of mighty Romantic symphonies, oratorios, orchestral pieces and concertos. Though often thought of as an establishment figure, perhaps thanks to the familiar setting of his ‘Pomp and Circumstance March’ with the words Land of Hope and Glory, he always felt himself an outsider because of his humble origins, provinicial background and Catholic faith. He was already at work on ‘The Dream of Gerontius’ when the ‘Enigma Variations’ first brought him public acclaim. Following performances of the Dream in Germany in 1901 and 1902, Richard Strauss awarded him the accolade ‘Meister’. He was knighted in 1904, awarded the Order of Merit in 1911 and made a baronet in 1931. Elgar wrote little in the last few years of his life apart from his valedictory Cello Concerto, but his unfinished Third Symphony was recently ‘completed’ (or rather, the ‘sketches elaborated’) by compos
