An enigma and a connection

Back tonight after a rehearsal of Elgar's Enigma Variations.

I am not what you would call an out-and-out Elgar enthusiast.  The one performance of The Dream of Gerontius which I took part in was enough for me, and I am one of those, perhaps rare, people who doesn't respond instinctively to the cello concerto.  On the other hand I greatly admire the first symphony and enjoy some of the lighter music - if you don't know Mina, Elgar's very late musical tribute to his dog, then I thoroughly recommend it.

But the Enigma Variations is his masterpiece.  The wit and tenderness of the portraits of his friends are irresistible, and there is not a note out of place (well perhaps the finale is a bit bombastic in places but who cares....).  The variations are one of those pieces which just works!

At the heart of course is Nimrod.  This is so embedded in the British musical psyche that it is sometimes difficult to hear it for what it really is - not a dirge but a heartfelt tribute to friendship.    At least that is how I hear it.   Of course there are other views.  If you have never heard it before you should listen to Bernstein trying to turn it into the slow movement of a Bruckner symphony.  I can just about see what he was trying to do - and on its own terms the performance is magnificent - but I can't help but regarding it as completely wrong headed and self indulgent.







Under the bonnet Nimrod is a wonderful example of the use of harmony to generate forward momentum.  I don't yet have the blogging technique to incorporate and annotate a score into this post, but if I could I would love to show how the use of dissonance and resolution builds the tension and the forward propulsion towards the climax.  Elgar may have been self conscious about his lack of formal training but in fact he was in complete control of his material in a way that never fails to impress.

I'd like to end with a treasured personal memory.  When I was a school I occasionally attended meetings of the Norwich gramophone society and one evening the speaker was Wulstan Atkins, who was Elgar's godson.  Afterwards I went with a few other members to somebody's house and Mr Atkins kept us entertained with lots of anecdotes of Elgar the man.

Not only was this fascinating in its own right but it opens up links to the musical past.  For example Elgar's violin teacher was Adolf Pollitzer, whose teacher was Joseph Bohm, who was one of the members of the quartet which worked with Beethoven on the early performances of his quartets.

I suspect that if I did enough work I could probably find a link to Beethoven with one fewer steps.  I wonder whether in his youth Elgar met somebody who himself had met Beethoven.  The dates would work.  Beethoven died in 1827, so somebody who met him aged 20 would have been born in 1807.  Elgar was born in 1857 so if you project him to age 20 that would take us to 1877.  Our putative man who met Beethoven would have been 70 then, so it is all possible.   Perhaps one day I will identify him.