Elgar and Englishness
Thursday 31 July 2008 23:00-23:15 (Radio 3)
Four commentators reflect on aspects of Elgar in the context of his time and after, exploring the contradictions and enigmas in his complex and paradoxical personality.
Playlist:
4/4. Elgar and Englishness
Ernest Newman described Elgar's music as expressive of 'the very soul of our race'. Nalini Ghuman, Professor of Music at Mills College California, argues that the critical obsession with identifying in Elgar's music an essential Englishness has served to confine the music within the nation's boundaries.
