Release Date: 06 January 2006
Label: Naxos - Ex Select Products / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313298426
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: Violin Recital
Description
Edward Elgar (1857-1934) Music for Violin and Piano The image of Sir Edward Elgar as an Edwardian gentleman, happier at the race-course or with his dogs than in the concert-hall or with musicians is sadly deceptive. Popularly associated with the heyday of British imperialism through his all too well known Pomp and Circumstance Marches and other occasional celebrations of Empire that have lasted less well, he has seemed to some the musical epitome of a period in British history that it has become fashionable to decry. The picture is a false one. In Edwardian terms Elgar was a counter-jumper, a man of relatively humble origins, son of a jobbing musician who kept a shop in Worcester and later the husband of an imprudent if well connected spinster, the daughter of a Major-General in the Indian Army and nine years his senior. As a Catholic in a largely Protestant and strongly prejudiced community, he must have seemed very much less of an Establishment figure, whatever mask he may have chosen to assume as his fame grew. Initial recognition was slow in coming. In 1890 the Elgars moved to London from his native West of England, but the following year retreated again to the West Country, taking a house in Malvern, allowing Elgar to return to his earlier activities as a provincial musician, enjoying a merely local reputation. During the last decade of the century he turned his attention largely to the writing of choral works, designed for the flourishing amateur choral societies of his native region and of the North of England. It was the Enigma Variations, completed in 1899, that first established his fame in London and, therefore, nationally. The oratorio The Dream of Gerontius, which followed in 1900, was less successful at its first performance in Birmingham and the publishers, Novello, were not particularly generous in their treatment of him, although he came to rely on the encouragement of the German-born August Johannes Jaeger, a reader for the firm, who found in Elgar's music something much more akin to the music of his native country. The Dream of Gerontius later won the place it now retains in English choral repertoire, finely performed in Manchester under Richter and by 1904 proving acceptable to London critics, resentful, perhaps, of the success of the work abroad. Public recognition brought Elgar many honours, his position sealed by the composition of music for the coronation of King Edward VII. He was awarded honorary doctorates by universities old and new and in 1904 received the accolade of a knighthood. Later official honours included the Order of Merit in the coronation honours of 1911 and finally in 1931 a baronetcy. Acceptance, as represented by the musical establishment of the country, was confirmed by the award of the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1925, after an earlier award to Delius. Elgar's work had undergone significant change in the later years of the 1914-18 war, a development evident in the poigna
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
Yaqi Yang; Margarita Parsamyan; Robynne Redmon; Minghao Liu; Frank Ragsdale; Kim Josephson; Kevin S
Vilmos Csikos; Olivier Lechardeur; Manon Lamaison
Tomas Cotik; Martingale Ensemble; Ken Selden
