Edward Elgar rose from humble origins to become the epitome – in musical terms – of Britain at the height of Empire and he was knighted in 1904. A keen cyclist, dog-lover, wearer of the most impressive of moustaches and much inspired by the countryside around him, Elgar was a quintessentially English composer. Yet, he was greatly influenced by the great European composers such as Richard Strauss, Berlioz and Wagner.
Elgar was born in 1857 in Broadheath near Worcester within sight of the Malvern Hills. His father, an organist at St George’s Catholic Church, ran a music and piano tuning business, where the young Elgar was enlisted to assist. Elgar began playing violin in local chamber groups, and soon became a freelance musician, teacher, conductor and self-taught composer in Worcestershire. In 1889 he married one of his pupils, Alice, the daughter of Major-General Sir Henry Roberts. She became a vital influence on Elgar’s career as a composer, encouraging him to move to London. Elgar’s career was slow to develop and he was often frustrated and depressed during the 1890s. It was only with his wife’s encouragement and the support of his best friend August Jaeger, that Elgar persisted. In 1889, aged 42, he composed Enigma Variations, arguably Elgar’s most celebrated and enduring works. Enigma Variations established Elgar as the pre-eminent composer of his generation.
Elgar’s compositions were inspired by the countryside and imbued with his Catholicism, particularly The Dream of Gerontius (1900). Poorly received at the time, it is now considered to be one of the finest examples of the oratorio form. In 1901 Elgar composed a series of Marches, Pomp & Circumstance. They went down a storm at Henry Wood’s Promenade Concerts. Commissioned to set A C Benton’s words to music for Edward VII’s Coronation, Elgar adapted his first March to create Land of Hope and Glory. This sealed Elgar’s reputation as a patriotic composer.
After the First World War musical tastes began to change. Elgar composed four chamber pieces for violin, string quartet, piano quintet and cello. The Cello Concerto in E Minor was an elegiac piece considered to reflect Elgar’s personal despair at the destruction of the War. It was to be his last major work and although it was poorly received at the time, Elgar’s Cello Concerto became one of his most enduring pieces after the legendary performance at the 1963 Proms and 1965 EMI recording by Jaqueline du Pré with the LSO, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli.
After his wife died in 1920 Elgar withdrew somewhat from musical life and returned home to Worcestershire. Still regarded as the greatest living British composer, Elgar was made Master of the King’s Music in 1924. He embraced the pioneering Abbey Road Studios, recording his great works, often conducting the London Symphony Orchestra himself, with his Violin Concerto played by a 16-year-old prodigy Yehudi Menuhin in 1932. Such was his importance to classical music recording that a blue plaque in his honour was unveiled at Abbey Road Studios in 1993.
Edward Elgar died 23 February at the age of 76 and was buried next to his beloved Alice in Little Malvern, surrounded by views of the Malvern Hills that so inspired his music.