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Episode details

Radio 3,15 Mar 2012,20 mins

Elgar: Symphony No. 2

Discovering Music

Available for over a year

Stephen Johnson explores Elgar's Second Symphony, which was inspired by stays in Italy and Tintagel in Cornwall, and a poem by Shelley. When it was first heard in 1911, the shifting moods and complex underlying spirit of the symphony confounded many of the audience, perhaps anticipating the troubled times that were about to overtake Europe.

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