Journal August 2011 Vol.17, No. 2 1951-2011 The Elgar Society Journal The Society 18 Holtsmere Close, Watford, Herts., WD25 9NG Email: [email protected] August 2011 Vol. 17, No. 2 Editorial 3 Elgar and the man who punched tickets at Worcester Railway Station: 4 President The Elgar Society, 1951-2011 Julian Lloyd Webber FRCM Martin Bird ‘An Infinite Variety of Things’ 7 Vice-Presidents Elgar’s Second Symphony: Disappointment and Triumph Ian Parrott A Listener’s Celebration Andrew Neill Sir David Willcocks, CBE, MC Diana McVeagh Symphony No. 2: the music 24 Michael Kennedy, CBE Julian Rushton Michael Pope Sir Colin Davis, CH, CBE Newman and The Dream of Gerontius 30 Ian Ker Dame Janet Baker, CH, DBE Leonard Slatkin Troyte Griffith and the Philosopher’s Stone or 33 Sir Andrew Davis, CBE The Hogwash Express Donald Hunt, OBE Martin Bird Christopher Robinson, CVO, CBE Book reviews 36 Andrew Neill Martin Bird, Frank Beck Sir Mark Elder, CBE Music reviews 40 Richard Wiley CD reviews 42 Chairman Andrew Carter, Barry Collett, Martin Bird Steven Halls Letters 51 Vice-Chairman Paul Chennell, R. A. Browning Stuart Freed 100 Years Ago 52 Geoffrey Hodgkins Treasurer Peter Hesham Secretary The Editor does not necessarily agree with the views expressed by contributors, Helen Petchey nor does the Elgar Society accept responsibility for such views. Front Cover: Sketch for the opening of the Second Symphony, 5/6 January 1911 Notes for Contributors. Please adhere to these as far as possible if you deliver writing (as is much preferred) in Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format. A longer version is available in case you are prepared to do the formatting, but for the present the editor is content to do this. Copyright: it is the contributor’s responsibility to be reasonably sure that copyright permissions, if Editorial required, are obtained. Illustrations (pictures, short music examples) are welcome, but please ensure they are pertinent, cued into the text, and have captions. This issue celebrates anniversaries: specifically, those of the centenary of the Second Symphony and the 60th anniversary of the birth of the Elgar Society. In true Elgarian fashion I have taken care Presentation of written text: to phrase it thus: the great man was always adamant, for example, that 2 June 1927 was not his 70th birthday but his 71st - not unreasonably counting the day of his birth as his first. Subheadings: longer articles benefit from judicious use of these. It is hard to believe that so many years have passed so quickly. It seems only yesterday (but Dates: use the form 2 June 1857. Decades: 1930s, no apostrophe. it must have been in 1962) that I first heard the Second Symphony in Barbirolli’s first recording with the Hallé, and it is strange to think that the symphony was then as ‘new’ as the War Requiem Plurals: no apostrophe (CDs not CD’s). is today. Foreign words: if well established in English (sic, crescendo) in Roman, otherwise italics. I am delighted that Andrew Neill and Julian Ruston have contributed essays on the symphony, and that the Birthplace has provided a photograph of its opening in an early piano sketch1 to grace Numbers: spell out up to and including twenty, then 21 (etc.) in figures. the cover. The sketch is dated 5/6 January 1911. Charles Sanford Terry happened to be staying at Quotations: in ‘single quotes’ as standard. Double quotes for quotes within quotes. Plâs Gwyn and jotted down his memories of the time: ‘On January 4 and 5 he spent the greater part of each morning in playing over his sketches, and it was interesting to follow the process on Longer quotations in a separate paragraph, not in italic, not in quotes; please leave a blank which he worked. In every movement its form, and above all its climax, were very clearly in his line before and after. mind … but withal there was a great mass of fluctuating material which might fit into the work as Emphasis: ensure emphasis is attributed as ‘[original emphasis]’ or ‘[my emphasis]’. it developed in his mind to finality - for it had been created in the same ‘oven’ which had cast them Emphasized text italic. all. Nothing satisfied him until itself and its context seemed, as he said, inevitable. In that particular I remember how he satisfied himself as to the sequence of the second upon the first subject in the References: Please position footnote markers after punctuation – wherever possible at the end of first movement.’2 a sentence. The Society’s half century was celebrated ten years ago by the publication of Michael Trott’s 3 In footnotes, please adhere as far as possible to these forms (more fully expounded in the longer comprehensive booklet. It is still available, and members will find details of how to obtain a copy th version of these notes): elsewhere in this issue. For the 60 anniversary I have contented myself with a quick look at the early issues of the predecessor of the Journal, and remain hopeful that before too long all past Books: Author, Title (Place of publication: Publisher, year of publication), page[s]. Thus: Robert issues will be put online: there is so much invaluable information contained therein that should be Anderson, Elgar (London: Dent, 1993), 199. freely and widely available. Periodicals: Author, ‘Title of article’, Title of periodical, issue number and date sufficient to identify, As a further piece of self-indulgence I have included an essay, ‘Newman and The Dream of page[s]. Thus: Michael Allis, ‘Elgar, Lytton, and the Piano Quintet, Op. 84’, Music & Letters, 85 (May Gerontius’, written for me some years ago by Newman’s biographer, Father Ian Ker. As it happens, 2004), 198. that, too, celebrated a hundredth birthday, when a friend and I chose to celebrate our joint birthdays End a footnote with a full stop, please, and never put a comma before a parenthesis. (I was 45, she wasn’t) by performing that masterpiece. Titles that are ‘generic’ in Roman: e.g. Violin Concerto. Others in italics (e.g. Sea Pictures; the Finally, I am most grateful to an old colleague, Richard Wiley, for providing an initial reaction Musical Times). Units within a longer work in single quotes, e.g. ‘Sanctus fortis’ from The Dream to Volume 24 of the Complete Edition at very short notice. of Gerontius. Read on and enjoy. Martin Bird 1 Lovers of piano transcriptions please note. 2 MS notes at the Athenaeum Club. 3 Half-Century, The Elgar Society, 1951-2001 (Rickmansworth: Elgar Editions, 2001). 2 The Elgar Society Journal Vol.17 No.2 — August 2011 3 Elgar and the man who punched tickets at Worcester Railway of interest to Elgarians.’2 Well, thanks to the efforts of my predecessors, over the years we have done Wulstan proud, so much so that since 1997 it has been necessary to produce two separate Station: publications, the Elgar Society News and the Elgar Society Journal. The Elgar Society, 1951-2011 That first issue included reports of much Society business, record and book reviews, and letters. Hugh Bean’s recording of the Violin Concerto was particularly praised. The versions of Sammons (HLM7011 - 1929) and Menuhin (ALP1456 - 1932), well recorded by the standards of their day, particularly Menuhin, now sound very dated and cannot be recommended to anyone demanding even reasonably good sound. Naturally students of Elgar cherish the early Martin Bird recordings by Menuhin and Sammons for historical as well as sentimental reasons, but for the ordinary music lover I think this very good version by Hugh Bean might well be a first choice, perhaps with Heifetz or Menuhin (1966) as an alternative for those days when one’s whim is to be exhilarated rather than beguiled.3 In March 1934, Elgar’s biographer, Basil Maine, suggested the formation of an Elgar Society. It was not until after the Second World War, however, that the suggestion took concrete form 4 following a number of Elgar Festivals at Malvern. The first formal meeting was held on 29 January Rosa Burley’s splendid and forthright Edward Elgar, the record of a friendship had recently 1951. been published, and was the subject of a less than sympathetic review which provoked a letter The story of its first 50 years was well told in Michael Trott’s Half-Century, The Elgar Society, ‘From our President, Sir Adrian Boult.’ 1951-20011, and it is not necessary to repeat that story here. But it was not until 1973 that Wulstan Sir, - Atkins started to produce a Society Newsletter, with the intention ‘to gradually expand the contents of the NEWSLETTER to include articles and contributions from Members and others on subjects May I loudly applaud Mr. Trevor Fenemore-Jones’ article in your fine new Newsletter? I have no intention of reading Miss Burley’s book - one or two of the reviews have been enough to keep me from doing so. As a young musician who might have been beneath Elgar’s notice (and Lady Elgar’s) Fig. 1. Miss Kathleen Pearn, A.T. Shaw and J.V.H. Tompkins at the public meeting in Malvern on 5 may I testify to their great kindness on a number of occasions, and friendship over a long number of December 1950 at which Miss Pearn proposed the formation of an Elgar Society. (courtesy of the Malvern years. Of course he had his whims and peculiarities but what great creator has not.5 Gazette) It is the personal recollections of Sir Edward that have most excited me over the years. It is now, sadly, almost too late to add to them, but the Elgarian world would be far poorer had the Newsletter not existed as a vessel for such memories.