The Roots of an Enigma

Celebrating British Music: Donald Macleod explores the life and work of the 'quintessentially English' composer, Edward Elgar, whose musical roots lay firmly in Europe, and whose Catholicism and class background bequeathed him a lifelong sense of isolation from mainstream British society.

Today's programme follows Elgar from birth to the brink of his first acknowledged masterpiece via unrequited love, wind quintets written for performance in the family shed, a spell as music director at a lunatic asylum, marriage, early recognition, the advent of 'Nimrod' (August Jaeger), and the first glimmerings of success beyond the confines of his native Worcestershire.