ELGAR Enigma Variations In the South Coronation March Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra George Wurst Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934) Enigma Variations, Op. 36 Overture: In the South, Op. 50 Coronation March, Op. 65 Sir Edward Elgar enjoys a curious reputation in his own country. To many he is, above all, the composer of the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, the celebrator of Edwardian imperialism, the man who prefered the races to a rehearsal of his Violin Concerto with the young Yehudi Menuhin, who adds to the popular image by describing the composer as "a grandfatherly country gentleman who should properly have had a couple of hounds... at his heels." In fact Elgar deserves rather better than this, nearly qualifying for admission to the exclusive club that belongs to the greatest of the late romantic composers. He enjoyed the discerning esteem of his fellow-countrymen in his own time, and then, as now, was largely underestimated abroad, except in the United States of America. His oratorios have an interest that may now be unfashionable, although The Dream of Gerontius (Naxos 8.553885-6) retains a place in English choral repertoire, but the two symphonies, the concertos for violin and for cello and the Enigma Variations remain firmly entrenched in English concert programmes. Edward Elgar was born in the West of England, near Worcester, in 1857. His father was a piano-tuner, organist, violinist and shopkeeper, from whom Elgar acquired much of his musical training. The boy at first made his living as a freelance musician, teaching, playing the violin and organ, and conducting local orchestras and choirs. His marriage in 1889 to a piano pupil, daughter of a retired Indian army general and nine years his senior, had a marked effect on his career, allowing him to move to London, where acceptance at first proved difficult. In 1897 his Imperial March for the royal Jubilee won success, enhanced still further by the Enigma Variations, which he completed in 1899. The Variations on an Original Theme take their popular name, the Enigma Variations, from the puzzle provided by the theme itself, to which a so far undiscovered second theme could be added, the written theme serving as a counterpoint to it. In addition to this the composer claimed that a larger theme would go with the whole set of variations. Elgar made it clear that the hidden theme was one that everyone would know, but rejected suggestions of God Save the King and Auld Lang Syne. A recent proposal by Theodore van Houten puts forward Rule, Britannia, a convincing hypothesis, although the melody would have to be used fragmentarily. The work is dedicated to the composer's friends pictured within, and an early critic plausibly suggested that the given theme represented Elgar himself, whose name fits well enough the rhythm of the first notes. The identity of the friends is now well known. C.A.E. is Elgar's wife, a gracious woman of some strength of character. The second variation depicts the amateur pianist Steuart-Powell, followed by the writer Richard Townsend. A more solid fourth variation shows the country landowner W.M Baker, followed by a tribute to Matthew Arnold's son, Richard, where the theme appears in the bass. Ysobel is the viola-player Isabel Fitton, who is allowed a viola solo, and Troyte is the ebullient architect Troyte Griffith. Winifred Norbury offers a delicate contrast, to be succeeded by the hunter Nimrod, a name suggested by a translation of the name of Elgar's publisher, Jaeger. Dorabella, Dora Penny, was a friend and neighbour of the Elgars in the country, and she is followed by a portrait of the organist of Hereford Cathedral, Dr. Sinclair, or more precisely of his bull-dog Dan falling into the river and paddling ashore. Basil Nevinson, an amateur cellist, is given a cello solo, while the thirteenth variation introduces another mystery, but may well represent Lady Mary Lygon, a quotation from Mendelssohn's Overture A Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage a reference to her voyage to Australia. The work ends with Elgar himself, disguised by letters that present his wife's pet name for him, Edoo. In the early years of the new century Elgar established himself in an unquestionable position as a composer. The Enigma Variations had been followed in 1900 by The Dream of Gerontius, which had its first performance at the Birmingham Festival that year, followed in 1903 by the first London performance, given under the composer's direction in Westminster Cathedral. 1903 also saw the completion and first performance at the Birmingham Festival of The Apostles, an oratorio that aroused less enthusiasm than The Dream of Gerontius had done. In late November Elgar and his wife left for a holiday in Italy, staying first at Bordighera, a resort far too English for his taste. They then took a villa at Alassio, which at first proved a pleasant change, until the weather made Eigar long for a return to Malvern, where he felt he could work. Alassio, however, proved the inspiration for the concert overture In the South, Opus 50, which was first performed on the third day of the Elgar Festival held at Covent Garden from 14th to 16th March. The festival bears witness to the esteem in which Elgar was now held, with full houses to hear The Dream of Gerontius, The Apostles and a third programme that included the Enigma Variations, Froissart Overture, Sea Pictures, Pomp and Circumstance Nos. 1 and 2 and excerpts from Caractacus. In the South, dedicated to Elgar's loyal friend Frank Schuster, is more of atone- poem in the manner of Richard Strauss than a mere overture. Inspired by the Italian landscape, the idea of the work came to him all at once, as he walked near Alassio, by the side of an ancient Roman road, seeing there a shepherd and recalling the past conflicts that took place on that very spot, as he saw it. On the score he wrote lines from Tennyson's The Daisy, recalling lands of palm andsouthern pine, and from Byron's Childe Harold, describing the Italian landscape as a land / Which was the mightiest in its old command / And is the loveliest. The music starts boldly, in a mood of confidence and optimism and using the idea sketched in 1899 for the bull-dog Dan, the subject of a variation in the Enigma Variations, shown here as triumphant after a fight. This leads to a passage of pastoral serenity, interrupted by bursts of exuberance, but returning, to come to a sudden end before a massive episode that includes descending fifth after fifth, depicting with strident force the power of ancient Rome and the subsequent wars and conflicts. The music rushes forward into a central section in which a solo viola plays, to a gentle accompaniment, what Elgar referred to as canto populare, a passage later re-arranged and published as In the Moonlight. The French horn takes up the melody and the viola returns, a reminiscence of the use of the instrument made by Berlioz in Harold in Italy. This ushers in the recapitulation and the return of the confident music of the opening, to bring the overture to an end in a mood of noble triumph. Elgar's Coronation March was written for performance in Westminster Abbey at the coronation of King George V in 1911. It is no mere patriotic piece d'occasion, but makes use of material originally intended for a ballet on Rabelais, which he had eventually abandoned, a concession perhaps to the moral scruples of his wife. This provides the introduction to the march and other ideas had bee.n sketched in Rome for an Italian processional. The march cou~lesa certain solemnitv. a~~ro~riate.. to the occasion with a passing melancholy, its principal substance contrasted with a gentler trio. Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra was founded on 22nd May 1893 by Dan Godfrey, the son of a Victorian band-master. At first it was known as the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra and provided music for one of the most prosperous resorts on the south coast of England. Dan Godfrey served as principal , conductor for the next forty years and established one of the most famous orchestras in Great Britain. Since then the orchestra has worked under a succession of distinguished principal conductors, the most recent being Sir Charles Groves, Constantin Silvestri, Paavo Berglund and Rudolf Barshai. In September 1988 the American conductor Andrew Litton was appointed Principal Conductor, with Kees Bakels as Principal Guest Conductor. In May 1993 the orchestra launched its centenary celebrations, and during the ensuing year undertook its first tour of the United States of America. The visit consolidated a touring history which has included Russia, Hong Kong, Spain, France, Switzerland, Finland, Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra has recorded for a number of labels, with highly acclaimed interpretations of the com~leteTchaikovskv ... Svm~honies and the complete cycle of ~aughanWilliams .Symphbnies for Naxos. George Hurst George Hurst was born in 1926 in Edinburgh of Russian and Romanian parentage and won early distinction in Canada as a composer while a student at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto. At the age of 21 he was appointed professor of composition at the Peabody Institute of Baltimore and from 1950 to 1955 was concurrently conductor of the Peabody Conservatory Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra of York, Pennsylvania, studying during this period with Pierre Monteux. Encouraged by Myra Hess to return to England he made his London debut in 1953 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he served as Assistant Conductor until his appointment as Principal Conductor of the BBC Northern Orchestra, now the BBC Philharmonic, a position he held from 1958 for some ten years.