New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Release Date: 01 January 2005
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313227327
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: ELGAR
Description
Edward Elgar (1857-1934)MarchesSir Edward Elgar occupies a strange position in his owncountry. For many he is associated with British, or,more specifically, English Imperialism, epitomized inLand of Hope and Glory, a patriotic anthem now sungwith gusto and tongue in cheek on the last night of theLondon Promenade Concerts each year. The image ofan Edwardian country gentleman, with his dogs andhorses is misleading. Elgar was the son of a shopkeeper,in the days when to be in trade marked a man for lifeand escape from this background earned a man thename of counter-jumper. He married the daughter of aretired Indian Army general, a pupil of his, nine yearshis senior, and it was she who gave him the necessarysupport, morally and socially, that finally helped him tomake his way in Edwardian society. Nevertheless,musically Elgar was far nearer to the German romanticcomposers of his time than to the developing vein ofEnglish music, with its pastoral reliance on newlycollected folk-song.Edward Elgar was born near Worcester, in the Westof England, in 1857. His father was a piano-tuner,organist, violinist and eventually a shopkeeper, and itwas from him that Elgar acquired much of his musicaltraining. He at first made his living as a free-lancemusician, teaching, playing the violin and organ, andconducting local amateur orchestras and choirs. His firstsuccess away from his own West Country, after earlierabortive attempts, was in 1897 with his Imperial March,written for the royal jubilee celebrating sixty gloriousyears of Queen Victoria. His reputation was furtherenhanced by the so-called Enigma Variations of 1899.The oratorio The Dream of Gerontius, which followedin 1900, was less successful at its first performance inBirmingham, but later became a staple element inBritish choral repertoire. His publishers Novello had notalways been particularly generous in their treatment ofhim, but he came to rely on the encouragement of theGerman-born Augustus Johannes Jaeger, a reader forthe firm, who found in Elgar's music something muchmore akin to the music of his native country.Public recognition brought Elgar many honours, hisposition sealed by the composition of music for thecoronation of King Edward VII. He was awardedhonorary doctorates by universities old and new and in1904 received the accolade of a knighthood. Laterofficial honours included the Order of Merit in thecoronation honours of 1911 and finally, in 1931, abaronetcy. Acceptance, as represented by the musicalestablishment of the country, was confirmed by theaward of the Gold Medal of the Royal PhilharmonicSociety in 1925, after an earlier award to Delius.Elgar's work had undergone significant changes inthe later years of the 1914-18 war, a developmentevident in his Cello Concerto of 1919. His wife's deathin 1920 removed a support on which he had long relied,and the last fourteen years of his life brought adiminishing inspiration and energy in his work as acomposer, although he continued to meet demands f
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Various
Various
Lully
