Elgar's Hillside

[Scarpia]

He's had a good run. For a guy who merely wanted to reach the level of fame that meant letters addressed to 'Edward Elgar, England' would reach him, I'd say that to have his face on the currency for ten years would seem a pretty good outcome.

Modest guy.  Replaced by the Spice Girls, I take it?

[eyeresist]

This decision was actually taken a couple of years ago, I believe.

Art replaced by commerce.

[71 dB]

It'll kill Poju . . . our man in Maine reports:

It didn't kill me. It just makes me more frustrated and depressed.

[karlhenning]

The verb is figurative, you see.  As I wrote it, it has the virtue of brevity.  It'll frustrate and depress Poju yet more just doesn't sing.

[Sergeant Rock]

It didn't kill me. It just makes me more frustrated and depressed.

As frustrated and depressed as I was when we lost the Deutschmark and my beloved Clara Schumann:




Sarge

[karlhenning]

That's a handsome note, Sarge!

[71 dB]

As frustrated and depressed as I was when we lost the Deutschmark and my beloved Clara Schumann:




Sarge

Well, we had my favorite architect Alvar Aalto on the 50 mk note.

[Sergeant Rock]

That's a handsome note, Sarge!

Well, it was, sniff, sniff...I miss the old broad.

Sarge

[Elgarian]

The really sad thing about Elgar is that, in spite of the modern tendency to sweep him away along with Imperialism and all that it implies culturally, he never actually felt a part of all that. To the end, he felt like a jumped-up violin teacher; a tradesman made good. Always an outsider. That comment, about wanting to be famous enough that a letter marked 'Edward Elgar, England' would reach him, tells a sad tale really; it's the tale of a tradesman who was overly conscious of his status in society, never able to overcome those rigid cultural barriers. Even knighted, and his music feted, he was never able to accept his success himself for what it was - and I rather think that there was no accolade, no distinction, no decoration, that would have satisfied him, because the need ran too deep.

I think that need fed all his rather strange relationships with women (in different ways), and drove the sense of longing for acceptance that pervades so much of his music (and which makes Elgar so much 'my' composer because I recognise so much of my own deepest longings in his music). That persistent striving for 'nobilmente' in his music is entirely misunderstood when people start talking about Jingoism. It's actually the opposite - it represents a search for an ideal that he hadn't found, and couldn't find, but could only project onto British Imperialism because it was the nearest thing to the Arthurian chivalric ideal that he'd got.

And the desperately sad fact is that if someone had been able to see the future, and had told Elgar that he would become so famous that his image would be engraved on British currency for ten years, he would have shrugged disconsolately and said: 'But only ten years, you see. Then they took me off.' At the core of Elgar there is a desperately insecure man, longing for somewhere, some way, to belong.

[Scarpia]

As frustrated and depressed as I was when we lost the Deutschmark and my beloved Clara Schumann:




Sarge

Whoever did the ingraving was a hack.  Why does the mouth look so oddly crimped?  No sign of that anomaly in the image that was used as the basis for it.



Really, they should have used this image.

More fetching.

[karlhenning]

The really sad thing about Elgar is that, in spite of the modern tendency to sweep him away along with Imperialism and all that it implies culturally, he never actually felt a part of all that. To the end, he felt like a jumped-up violin teacher; a tradesman made good. Always an outsider. That comment, about wanting to be famous enough that a letter marked 'Edward Elgar, England' would reach him, tells a sad tale really; it's the tale of a tradesman who was overly conscious of his status in society, never able to overcome those rigid cultural barriers. Even knighted, and his music feted, he was never able to accept his success himself for what it was - and I rather think that there was no accolade, no distinction, no decoration, that would have satisfied him, because the need ran too deep.

I think that need fed all his rather strange relationships with women (in different ways), and drove the sense of longing for acceptance that pervades so much of his music (and which makes Elgar so much 'my' composer because I recognise so much of my own deepest longings in his music). That persistent striving for 'nobilmente' in his music is entirely misunderstood when people start talking about Jingoism. It's actually the opposite - it represents a search for an ideal that he hadn't found, and couldn't find, but could only project onto British Imperialism because it was the nearest thing to the Arthurian chivalric ideal that he'd got.

And the desperately sad fact is that if someone had been able to see the future, and had told Elgar that he would become so famous that his image would be engraved on British currency for ten years, he would have shrugged disconsolately and said: 'But only ten years, you see. Then they took me off.' At the core of Elgar there is a desperately insecure man, longing for somewhere, some way, to belong.

Lovely post, sieur. Thank you.

[Sergeant Rock]

Why does the mouth look so oddly crimped?

She's puckering up to give us a kiss, of course 

Sarge

[karlhenning]

Why does the mouth look so oddly crimped?

She's puckering up to give us a kiss, of course 

Sarge

Or, she's thinking, Robert thinks his portrait should be here!

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

At the core of Elgar there is a desperately insecure man, longing for somewhere, some way, to belong.

To me, the most interesting aspect of Elgar's music is the clash between the swaggering, outgoing persona he sets up and the feelings of doubt and unease that arise to undermine that persona.

It took me a while to hear that. But now I think it's the most distinctive part of his compositional style.

[Elgarian]

To me, the most interesting aspect of Elgar's music is the clash between the swaggering, outgoing persona he sets up and the feelings of doubt and unease that arise to undermine that persona.

It took me a while to hear that. But now I think it's the most distinctive part of his compositional style.

I think of it slightly differently, as a tussle between the public life and the private life (nowhere explored so searchingly as in the violin concerto, perhaps), but I think we're talking about essentially the same thing.

[knight66]

Help please!

Despite received opinion that Elgar's 2nd Symphony is finer than his first. I have always preferred Number 1. It is some time since I gave the Second an outing and I always enjoyed it. The only recording I have is Solti. I listened to it yesterday and suddenly, it sounded bombastic and overblown. I turned it off after the third movement.

I want to reclaim it if I can. Can someone recommend me a version; preferably in good sound?

I have several versions of No 1, amongst them Colin Davis with he LSO. I keep it for the final movement which is stupendous, but I think he takes the main theme of the first movement much too slowly. I would probably be happy with him in No 1 as long as there is nothing eccentric about what he does with it.

Mike

[Sergeant Rock]

Help please!

Despite received opinion that Elgar's 2nd Symphony is finer than his first. I have always preferred Number 1. It is some time since I gave the Second an outing and I always enjoyed it. The only recording I have is Solti. I listened to it yesterday and suddenly, it sounded bombastic and overblown. I turned it off after the third movement.

I want to reclaim it if I can. Can someone recommend me a version; preferably in good sound?

I have several versions of No 1, amongst them Colin Davis with he LSO. I keep it for the final movement which is stupendous, but I think he takes the main theme of the first movement much too slowly. I would probably be happy with him in No 1 as long as there is nothing eccentric about what he does with it.

Mike

I think you wouldn't like my favorites (Sinopoli and Tate...both far slower than the norm). Penguin recommends the budget priced Handley and Downes.

Sarge

[DavidRoss]

Hahn's recording of the Opus 61, while certainly a pleasant enough listen, is a bit too girly and light of tread.  I suspect I always knew this, but its truth was especially emphasized by the gutsy, commanding performance Znaider gave of the work at Symphony this past weekend.  (He plays it again tonight, I believe.)

I agree about Hahn's Elgar, but love that disc for RVW's Lark, the loveliest among the half-dozen or so in my collection.  I seem to have imprinted on Nigel Kennedy's second recording of Elgar's cto, the one w/Rattie, compared to which Hahn sounds feminine if not quite girly.  (For some reason the term "girly" always brings Richard Simmons to mind.)  Come to think of it, I prefer Kennedy's masculine Brahms VC to Hahn's feminine one, too.

What makes her playing seem "feminine?"  Is it the consistently sweet tone?  Are her attacks less fierce than fluid?  Her runs more agile than aggressive?  I've not sought to analyze it, but I've felt that way about her playing from the time I first heard her.  (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

[71 dB]

Help please!

Despite received opinion that Elgar's 2nd Symphony is finer than his first.

Yes, it's true that the 2nd is a finer work. When you agree with that then you know you understand Elgar's music! 

I have always preferred Number 1. It is some time since I gave the Second an outing and I always enjoyed it. The only recording I have is Solti. I listened to it yesterday and suddenly, it sounded bombastic and overblown. I turned it off after the third movement.

It's a sign of not truly understanding Elgar if you find it bombastic and overblown. It's like complaining about Bach's music being contrapuntal. Listen "beyond" the loud orchestral bits and find all the subtleties of Elgar's music. Don't compare Elgar with composer with thin orchestration style. Forget about other composers while listening to Elgar and hear what he is able to do with his thick style! Listening with headphones helps a lot because Elgar benefits from analytical listening (perhaps that is where many go wrong with Elgar thinking it's only emotional music?)

I want to reclaim it if I can. Can someone recommend me a version; preferably in good sound?

Downes on Naxos is the way to go.

[DavidRoss]

Just putting the finishing touches to my letter. There...
Now, sealing the envelope ....

'Karl Henning, America'

That should do it. See you on a dollar bill in a few years' time, Karl.

Only the one dollar bill?  Not the twenty?  Or the fifty?  Oh, well...so long as it's not the three, I suppose.  (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)