The perfect moustachioed, be-gloved and waist-coated late Victorian gentleman? Maybe, but there are many things about Elgar that don’t fit that particular stereotype. Self-taught, the son of a shop keeper and set apart from Protestant England by his Catholicism, he never fully shared in the confidence that Britain’s imperial majesty had bestowed on its middle classes, as (seemingly, anyway) represented by such composers as Mackenzie, Stanford and Parry.
Two works for string orchestra this week, the Serenade and the Introduction and Allegro…
Serenade for Strings [Decca]
Introduction & Allegro [LSO Live]
Course materials:
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The Art of Listening 