{"id":783,"date":"2013-04-06T01:15:24","date_gmt":"2013-04-06T05:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=783"},"modified":"2018-08-14T17:06:41","modified_gmt":"2018-08-14T21:06:41","slug":"elgars-two-and-a-half-symphonies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=783","title":{"rendered":"Elgar\u2019s Two and a Half Symphonies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"13-04-06<\/a>Edward Elgar fell out of fash\u00adion after World War I, and his exis\u00adtence was bare\u00adly acknowl\u00adedged by music his\u00adto\u00adri\u00adans for the next fifty years. He was so firm\u00adly asso\u00adci\u00adated with British Impe\u00adri\u00adal\u00adism, that his music became the sub\u00adject of sneers. This is par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlarly sad, because Elgar him\u00adself was a gen\u00adtle, sen\u00adsi\u00adtive soul whose pri\u00admary inspi\u00adra\u00adtion was nature, and he grew to loathe every per\u00adfor\u00admance of \u201cLand of Hope and Glo\u00adry\u201d, the bom\u00adbas\u00adtic anthem that had been made from one of his march\u00ades. In the 1890\u2019s he had been a very patri\u00adotic Empire boost\u00ader, along with every\u00adone else. But he was bit\u00adterly dis\u00adilu\u00adsioned by World War I and sought solace in his beloved Eng\u00adlish coun\u00adtry\u00adside. He nev\u00ader much cared for his role as Britain\u2019s Offi\u00adcial Composer.<\/p>\n

But despite all the scorn heaped on him, the First Sym\u00adphony, the Cel\u00adlo Con\u00adcerto, and the Enig\u00adma Vari\u00ada\u00adtions con\u00adtin\u00adued to be per\u00adformed in seri\u00adous con\u00adcerts, while the Pomp and Cir\u00adcum\u00adstance March\u00ades lived on in the Pop Clas\u00adsics reper\u00adtoire. The Sec\u00adond Sym\u00adphony, not at first suc\u00adcess\u00adful, slow\u00adly came to be played as often as the first. At his death, he left sketch\u00ades for a third sym\u00adphony, and in 1998, these were trans\u00adformed into a com\u00adplete work by the respect\u00aded com\u00adposer Antho\u00adny Payne.<\/p>\n

The two com\u00adplete sym\u00adphonies have a num\u00adber of influ\u00adences, but that of Beethoven over\u00adwhelms all oth\u00aders. They are com\u00adplex works, some\u00adwhat hard to fol\u00adlow unless you spot the (some\u00adtimes not obvi\u00adous) vari\u00ada\u00adtions of ear\u00adlier the\u00admatic ele\u00adments as they pop up again and again. The mood in both sym\u00adphonies tends to alter\u00adnate between a bear-like growl\u00ading and a wist\u00adful, ele\u00adgiac dreami\u00adness. But unlike Beethoven, who occa\u00adsion\u00adally inter\u00adrupted the thun\u00adder for a brief med\u00adi\u00adta\u00adtive spell, Elgar was at heart a con\u00adtem\u00adpla\u00adtive soul. You have a feel\u00ading that the blasts of brass and thump\u00ading drums were only there as a pal\u00adisade to pro\u00adtect the ele\u00adgiac passages.<\/p>\n

The first sym\u00adphony is one of the few suc\u00adcess\u00adful sym\u00adphonies in A\u2011flat. You might rec\u00adog\u00adnize its most promi\u00adnent theme, as it was used in the movie Wal\u00adlace <\/em>&<\/span><\/i><\/span> Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rab\u00adbit<\/em>. The sec\u00adond sym\u00adphony is very sim\u00adi\u00adlar in orches\u00adtra\u00adtion and tech\u00adnique, but it ends in a mild, dis\u00adsi\u00adpated ele\u00adgy rather than the tri\u00adumphant cli\u00admax that Edwar\u00addian Eng\u00adlish audi\u00adence were accus\u00adtomed to, so in dis\u00adap\u00adpointed Elgar\u2019s descrip\u00adtion, the audi\u00adences \u201csat around like stuffed pigs\u201d. But it is now just as well-played and record\u00aded as the first.<\/p>\n

Payne\u2019s recon\u00adstruc\u00adtion and fill\u00ading out of the unfin\u00adished third sym\u00adphony fol\u00adlows Elgar\u2019s prin\u00adci\u00adples, and I think his under\u00adstand\u00ading of the com\u00adposer was suf\u00adfi\u00adcient to com\u00adplete the work in a way that resem\u00adbles what he had in mind. The orches\u00adtra\u00adtion strikes me as spot-on. The whole thing feels like Elgar, all right, but I think it feels a bit too much like the young, healthy Elgar. He was a lone\u00adly and sad\u00addened man in his old age, mourn\u00ading the loss of a wife who had been a par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlarly close and spir\u00adi\u00adtual part\u00adner. If he had been able to com\u00adplete the third sym\u00adphony, it would prob\u00ada\u00adbly have tak\u00aden a dif\u00adfer\u00adent, more painful turn. I don\u2019t know whether the last bars were explic\u00adit in Elgar\u2019s notes or not, but that trans\u00adfor\u00adma\u00adtion is def\u00adi\u00adnitely well-expressed in the end\u00ading as Payne presents it.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Edward Elgar fell out of fash\u00adion after World War I, and his exis\u00adtence was bare\u00adly acknowl\u00adedged by music his\u00adto\u00adri\u00adans for the next fifty years. He was so firm\u00adly asso\u00adci\u00adated with British Impe\u00adri\u00adal\u00adism, that his music became the sub\u00adject of sneers. \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[947,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c-listening","category-cs-listening-2008"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=783"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8636,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783\/revisions\/8636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}