The Long-Awaited Symphony
Donald Macleod focuses on two very different facets of Elgar's musical personality, as evidenced in the First Pomp and Circumstance March and the First Symphony.
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 explores two very different facets of Elgar's musical personality: on the one hand, the confident unflappability of the first Pomp and Circumstance march; and on the other, the nuanced, doubt-ridden progress of the First Symphony, whose conclusion is just as triumphant but much harder won. Both works were huge, instant and enduring successes.
Last on
Music Played
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Edward Elgar
Pomp and Circumstance March in D, Op. 39 No. 1
Performers: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor: Norman Del Mar
- DG 429 713 2.
- 16.
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Edward Elgar
Symphony No. 1 in A flat major Op.55
Performers: London Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor: Georg Solti
- Decca 421 387 2.
Broadcast
- Wed 19 Jun 201312:00BBC Radio 3
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