Prom 61: Howells & Elgar Elgar - Symphony No. 1 in A flat major Miah Persson soprano Andrew Kennedy tenor BBC Symphony Chorus London Philharmonic Choir BBC Symphony Orchestra Martyn Brabbins conductor Royal Albert Hall, 29 August 2012
You can hear the sadness of Elgar in this sublime music as he looks back over his life but there is a resolute hope too. One of the most wonderful, heart rending and emotional symphonies ever created.
I don't hear sadness, I hear dignity, just as Elgar defined this opening movement - "nobilmente e semplice" - with nobility and simplicity. I also don't hear it as backward-looking, but forward-looking. This wasn't at the end if his life - it was his first symphony. He was 51 when it premiered, he dedicated it to Hans Richter in anticipation of continuing to work with him, and Elgar lived and worked another 25 years. Reviews at the time called it lofty, noble, strong, tender, simple, and expressive.
This may be subjective. But this symphony means to me a sad and confused wandering away from something comforting and coming back to it in the end. More than any other symphony I know, it has this effect on me.
Elgar evidently had self doubts about his symphony however IMO it proved to be one of the finest ever written. Took me a while to fully appreciate but wow when I finally woke up I realised it was an absolute masterpiece.
This is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written. Many years ago, I played it, and had tears in my eyes all through the slow movement. Couldn't see the notes on my part very well, but by then I had them in my heart.
Agreed! When I first heard the Adagio 40 years ago I stopped in my tracks and had to listen to it repeatedly. I used the end of that movement on my answering machine and people often asked what is that gorgeous music?
At St Mary's College Strawberry hill, Twickenham in 1972 the student choir and South West Essex Choral Society took part in a performance of The Dream of Gerontius in the college Chapel - it was my introduction to choral orchestral music and a lifelong love of Elgar - the conductor was the late Donald Ray an incredible musician and a wonderful and kind man - this performance of the 1st symphony is so evocative and a personal reminder for me of all the wonderful Elgar times I've had in my life - thank you
The last movement is sublime.The section in the that begins about 4 minutes in with a march-like theme - dom dom dom diddle dom dom doo dah - which builds and builds, with strings swirling threateningly around and around, like an invading army circling around a hilltop, ever more dangerous .... until dark notes from the basses make us pause, and then suddenly, miraculously, around 6m30s, that same theme swells upwards on the strings, transformed almost beyond recognition from military threat to some kind of reconciliation or ultimate spiritual redemption, almost, but not quite, completing itself after about 8 minutes. The re-emergence of that theme, there, dressed in completely new clothes, is one of the greatest moments in all Elgar, for me. And when after that the march theme appears again, transformed in our perceptions because we've just been shown what it can be transformed into, it does so only to herald the magnificent return of the original theme, that fantastic tune, from the first movement - and I know that once you arrive at that point, you're OK.
0:00 Ⅰ. Andante. Nobilmente e semplice. 19:02 Ⅱ. Allegro molto. 26:16 Ⅲ. Adagio. (attaca, i.e. continued seamlessly from prev. movement) 39:30 Ⅳ. Lento. I clicked somewhere around thinking 'it should be around here' and it turned out to be exactly between the 3rd and 4th movements...! I must be too much in love with this symphony 🥰
Very enjoyable , one of the best weekends my life , The Smiths disco on a barge along the Thames Sat night, Elgar and enigma variations on Sunday night at the fantastic Royal Albert Hall with the most fantastic weather , probably never be beat by me.
My heart aches whenever I hear this symphony. It is so filled with melancholia. remembrances, pride, the passing of the Victorian Era. A heart rending testament to make permanent what time discards. Magnificently done! Great music for then, now, and the future! My deepest thanks for the availability of this video.
Richard Yiengst 'melancoly' is good word for all of Elgar's music--its like he's trying to escape some inner angst---but isn't quite successful--this adds, of course, to the emotional richness/ambivalance of his works. not your typical Victorian gentleman/artist.
Is there anything more gorgeous, more inspired than the meltingly beautiful part at 36:09? When I first heard it years ago I stopped cold in my tracks and listened to it endlessly.
I am enthralled by all the RU-vid footage about Elgar, and this vital, heart-stirring musical feat crowns it all! I am moved by the accounts of the composer's suffering towards the end of his life, and I shall keep a corner in my heart for the repose of his soul.
Wonderfully stated! In 1995 I went to Elgar’s birthplace, and in 2012 I went to his grave to place a flower on the stone and to thank him for all the indescribable joy his music has given me over the years,
SIU MAN LI Elgar was English don’t forget. He considered himself an outsider and he was an outsider. He knew nothing of music after never have taken a composition lesson in his life. Edu studied his fathers books from his bookshop and self taught himself in the countryside. All these true greats had a very proper training, or they were from a country that already had a musical history. Elgar thought William Byrd was a museum piece haha. It’s only more recently we have started to realise Elgar’s music was simply joyous.
This music always reaches my heart. I loved his music from my very late teens 50 years ago- when Ken Russell's wonderful film for monitor revealed to me that he was very much not one of the elite but a gifted visionary with no formal musical . education and an outsider (he and his father were in trade _music sellers and teachers }who had to use the tradesman's entrance to teach children of the gentry.
Nice to hear some feedback from German listeners. We British tend to think of Elgar as sorely underappreciated outside Britain, yet this symphony's dedicatee, the Austrian conductor Hans Richter, called it "the greatest symphony of modern times, written by the greatest modern composer - and not only in this country".
Greetings from Germany and so sorry! On the contrary I think that Elgar is a little bit overestimated in Britain. Here at best we know just Enigma, Pomp and C. and the Cello Concert. But this symphonie is really really wonderfull. I also discovered the Indian Crown Suite. But the 2nd symphonie f.e. is too complicated and it lacks of this wonderful theme we just listened. - Lets avoid "best" and "greatest" and "of all times"...
@@michaelfischer5800 Erm, Elgar is overestimated yet you only know the Enigma Variations, Pomp and Circumstance and the Cello Concerto? Why don’t you get back to us when you’ve listened to The Dream of Gerontius and The Apostles. There’s a good boy.
@@johnpeate4544 Youre mistaken mister. I know Elgar quite well. My favourite is the "Kleine Nachtmusik"... dom dom dom diddle dom dom doo..... Just bougth "Best of Elgar". Nice 7`` vinyl.
@@johnpeate4544 Honestly, I think Elgar is just famous for the wrong music. His most famous stuff is just far from his best work, and his best work (the symphonies, the violin concerto, some of the chamber music - especially the piano quintet) is not nearly as well-known. Obviously still famous - he's heavily lauded in Britain - but not as famous as Pomp and Circumstance or the Cello Concerto.
The performance of the Cello Concerto last Friday with Dutoit and the San Francisco symphony with Gautier Capucon was a profound experience. It was elegiac to the highest level.
+John Chase, do you think so? I find Elgar's symphonies thick, turgid and confused. Nothing of the clarity and superlative architecture of a Mahler, Nielsen or Sibelius. Elgar's oratorios, Gerontius, Apostles, Kingdom; they are masterpieces. He understood the 'cello as few did - no other concerto comes near to his. But listening to his symphonies is the musical equivalent of wading through treacle.
Treacle? I would say Elgar's symphonies are as celebratory as the Cornish fisherman's drink known as "Mahogany": two parts gin mixed with one part black treacle.
Kathryn Clarke , I know, what I meant was that these two composers wrote beautiful music in the romantic strain and not that the wonderful symphony here was composed by both of them together. Sorry for giving you the wrong impression. Incidentally, Brahms Third symphony was in fact Elgar's favorite, perhaps its mood is very English, so to speak.
Kathryn Clarke The main theme of the last movement is very very close to one of Brahms Handel variations, I have the impression Elgar ran out of inspiration after the wonderful adagio. Anyway I think he was a miniaturist, the quality of the larger works being variable. With these its only worth listening to the bits which are by Elgar not Schumann Brahms or Wagner.
It is said that of all English composers, Elgar is the most German (with some French influence too) and not only he but Stanford, Parry et al. were influenced by the Germans. His style is close to that of Brahms, even Mahler and Strauss, and the Dream of Gerontius by Wagner's Parsifal. But at the end of the day, he was a quintessentially English composer.
***** I think Elgar must have heard a lot of Schumann Brahms Wagner and Bruckner.Yes Gerontius with some German and Italian influence was the most successful of his larger scale works, but note that it consists of small sections strung together into a semi integrated whole. Its qualities were not to be repeated - the other Oratorios are definitely of uneven content, varying from brilliant to bland. He is best in the Wand of Youth, Pomp and Circumstance and all the other 'suites' of assembled miniatures (this includes Falstaff) the Violin Concerto and maybe the 2nd symph. But that's just my opinion.
It feels as if, across his repertoire, he refuses to accommodate the mechanical difference in playing between a violin and a cello. 1 part flattering to 2 parts terrifying. He does understand the instrument though. Always possible, just zero mercy.
46:02 Wow, that's the most beautiful part of all the Symphony for me. It's magical! But i think it goes a little bit fast there. Bryden Thomson's recording is Perfect for this part :-)
I don't even need to look it up to know it's the bit with harp and violin I... as a violinist I agree, not just the most beautiful part of the symphony, but one of the best of all music
Even in the symphony’s final pages, where one would naturally expect the vision to be triumphantly recaptured at last, there are still no certainties. The noble tune is battered by syncopated blasts and aggressive rhythmic dissonances. The effect is thrilling in its sheer explosive power
gerontius34 He is,as you say,under appreciated to an almost criminal degree in the US because many of the conductors there are european and totally obsessed with the central european cannon of music to the exclusion of anything that does not fit into their narrow little central european confines.Try this for a test,take a look at the upcoming programmes for most German,Austrian,Russian etc,orchestras and you will readily see what I mean.
@peter feltham. My sentiments exactly. Thanks in the main to Y.T. I have been discovering magnificent music outside of this Central European sphere that is rarely, if ever, performed live. Admittedly, recently, things have changed a lot in some countries, e.g. U.K. where a lot of neglected works are now getting a hearing but in the U.S. and Germany the same old works get played almost "ad nauseam" at the expense of others of equal if not greater merit.
As an American who has listened to classical music for 50 years now, I can agree that Elgar is under-appreciated and underperformed here. That will only change when someone steps up and places Elgar's two symphonies within the repertory. The overwhelming majority of our conductors are non-American so one would think that any conductor could program whatever he wants to with no repercussions from the American audiences. The only people who might object are the orchestral players themselves, who love playing the classics for one very good reason. The writing challenges them and they know the repertoire so well that they do not have to spend their entire careers learning new music. So it seems that no one wants to venture too far out on the limb. There are very few American symphonic composers who's music is performed here. Comparatively, in classical composition, we are a much younger country than Germany, Russia, Austria, England, France, Italy and the Nordic countries, so we naturally look to the more established of composers. Elgar's second is absolutely worthy of comparison with any of the Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius and Mahler symphonies, but the only way American audiences will grow to appreciate and love Elgar's symphonies, is if conductors, especially British conductors will push them our way.
Elgar's music, described as "heroic melancholy," is here beautifully demonstrated. He invites us to think and to feel. Sad to say that he lived only long enough to write two symphonies and sketches for a third. One of my personal favorite composers.
"Only lived long enough ...!??" Elgar died at the age of 77 - a very good age in those days! He had time to write 5 or 6 symphonies if he had wanted to. He spent most of the last 20 years of his life enjoying his hobbies. Nothing wrong with that, of course, he had written more than enough good music.
But he is "up there" already It's a matter of recognition really Remember, Bach was not considered a great for two centuries And furthermore, how many Beethoven symphonic themes can you quote off the top of your head, say, except for his Fifth? It's not about a numbers tally...
He lived plenty long enough to achieve what he wanted! The fact that he spent about 10 years in symphonic composition before this first symphony was premiered when he was 51 years old was because of his interest in composing in other musical forms rather than notching up symphonies. I thank him for writing, for example, his exquisite cello concerto, his variations - and so many other pieces which give infinite joy.
Seriously? It's a glorious symphony and a piece I adore but greater than anything by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler? I don't think so.
@@davebarclay4429 honestly it's on my top 5 of best classical music pieces ever written. It's just so emotional and beautiful. The last movement is a total musical orgasm.
@@davebarclay4429 Not to start a fight, but for my money it definitely beats out all of Bruckner. That said, I agree with your point. Love this piece - it's definitely in my top symphonies, with Sibelius's 3rd and maybe Mahler's 6th - but there's just so much music out there that to call anything the 'greatest' can't be anything but hyperbole
"Williams"?? If you mean Ralph Vaughan Williams, his family name is a "double-barrelled" surname - Vaughan Williams - both names are required: "Williams" alone is a solecism.
My favourite Elgar to be part of a performance of (I'm a 'cellist). He doesn't get stuck in a rut as he sometimes does - the motifs are really interestingly developed throughout ... and it still has all the emotional punch that Elgar always does so well. A joy.
Come and hear Martyn Brabbins conduct Elgar 1 again, this time with the Salomon Orchestra. St John's Smith Square, 14th October 2023. Hopefully it will be just as good .....
I love youtube. You made this comment 3 years ago, and I stumble upon it today. I'm a violinist, and this is one of the most beautiful moments in all of classical music.
When you look at this great symphony...everything looks wrong on paper...but is proven to be right on every single note played... This is perhaps why I love it so much... My favorite symphony of the 20th century NOT written by Mahler (only the 8th blocks Elgar from that #1 spot)...
I wholeheartedly agree with you. I've Elgar's 2nd conducted by Boult and love it. A gap in my library exists: I do not have Elgar's 1st, which is why I so enjoyed this Proms version. As for the greatest English symphony, I'm partial to V Wms 5th, the Boult rendition. But friends have excoriated me. So it goes.
Im not denying that this was a good performance too. But sometimes a certain conductor can bring out the "greatness" in the music. Boult and Barbirolli knew how to do this ......especially when they conducted this symphony. Perhaps the greatest English symphony to date.
This has definitely been my Elgar season. He was one melodious composer ( I come to Elgar from the usual and beloved Romantics: Schumann, Brahms, Dvorak and Richard Strauss). Not a bad pilgrimmage.
Not bad at all. But if you love melodious composers you should certainly include Schubert. He was, of course, Master of Song, but even in his symphonies and religious music there are melodies - songs - throughout. Melody and harmony - no one else can really match him on those essentials.
I like the way he purifies the openign theme into sucha sensuous variation. Reminds me of what Shostakoitch does with this #5 opening theme later in the work. Old fahsioened is okay ...
anyone whos loving this performace, should find this years LSO prom performance of his 2nd symphony which has just been posted on you tube , I love it worth a listen
If you were referring to the Daniel Harding performance, it was a disaster! Vasily Petrenko with the RLPO blew him into the weeds, absolutely no comparison.
Jacob Kilby "people"? Ugh! A friend of mine was at that very prom concert and told me he even saw some pleb not only cough but also spit it out at the young person in front of him. *AND* it was green.
I was there. Afraid I didn't find it wonderful. Efficient playing by the BBC Symphony but there's far more passion and poignancy to this work than this performance managed to find.
Heart of the symphony is pretty clearly in the dying bars of the slow mvt. And I think you're being unduly harsh about this performance. Elgar 1 is a virtuoso, highly technical play for any orchestra, as well as being relentlessly so for pretty much every player. In that scenario you have to frankly trust that the overall effect and that the conductor's vision is getting the emotion across. If you're not in the right emotionally receptive place in the audience then it will pass you by, regardless of the piece or the performers.
