When the Royal Philharmonic Society commissioned a Violin Concerto from Edward Elgar in 1909, the composer was on the very top of his powers. He created on this exceptional work one of many longest and most emotionally complicated violin concertos the world had but seen. And at its coronary heart, he implanted a thriller – which to this present day has by no means been wholly solved.
Elgar had made his title with the Enigma Variations in 1899, through which he painted musical portraits of his associates. Ten years later, he wrote a mysterious inscription on the Violin Concerto’s manuscript, in Spanish. “Aqui está encerrada el alma de …..” “Herein is enshrined the soul of …..”
Whose soul does it enshrine? And why?
Hearken to our really useful recording of Elgar’s Violin Concerto, carried out by Nicola Benedetti, on Apple Music and Spotify.
Elgar’s Violin Concerto: The Thriller Behind The Masterpiece
The autumnal, introverted nature of Edward Elgar’s Violin Concerto provides to its sense of longing and uncertainty. Whereas these qualities are typical of Elgar to a point, the timing right here is important. The famend violinist Fritz Kreisler gave its world premiere on 10 November 1910; by then, the triumphalism of the Victorian period was receding, and an unsettling wind of change was beginning to be felt – one which led in 1914 into the worldwide tragedy of World Struggle I.
Elgar’s Violin Concerto appears an awfully private work. Gone is the upbeat grandeur of the Pomp and Circumstance Marches or the Symphony No. 1; as an alternative, we sense ambiguity from the very starting (as an example, it takes some time for the concerto’s tonality to turn into established). The uncooked tenderness of the second topic, the sluggish motion’s long-breathed, sighing phrases, and above all, the astonishing accompanied cadenza within the finale foreshadow the heartrending intimacy of Elgar’s ‘Indian summer’ creations after World Struggle I – his three main chamber works and the Cello Concerto.
Maybe it’s no coincidence that the violin was Elgar’s personal instrument in his youth. It fashioned an important a part of his day by day bread as a self-taught jobbing musician, working his approach up from a modest background – his father had a music store in Worcester – as he strove for recognition as a composer. He didn’t obtain this in earnest till he was previous 40.
The intriguing 5 dots within the concerto’s dedication
The 5 dots within the concerto’s dedication have acquired in all probability as a lot consideration in themselves as your complete work, and numerous intriguing tales surrounding them have turned out (fairly disappointingly) to be crimson herrings. The most definitely candidate for the 5 dots, and the one for which there seems to be most proof, is often thought-about to be a feminine pal whom Elgar nicknamed “Windflower,” since she shared a primary title – Alice – along with his spouse. Alice Elgar, almost a decade her husband’s senior, doesn’t seem to have been a lot perturbed by his collection of friendships with or crushes upon youthful girls; there may be even some proof that she inspired it, conscious of the advantages for his inventive power. ‘Windflower’, was Alice Stuart-Wortley, daughter of the painter John Everett Millais and the spouse of an MP.
Edward Elgar discovered the method of writing the Violin Concerto agonizing at occasions; all through all of it, Alice Stuart-Wortley was his confidante, egging him on when his power was flagging. Elgar informed her he was creating ‘Windflower’ themes for the piece – the mild, questioning second topic of the primary motion is prime amongst them. “I have been working hard at the Windflower themes, but all stands still until you come and approve!” he wrote to her.
Later, he informed Alice, “I have no news except that I am appalled at the last movement and cannot get on: – it is growing so large – too large I fear, and I have headaches; Mr (William) Reed (leader of the London Symphony Orchestra) comes to us next Thursday to play it through and mark the bowings in the first movement, and we shall judge the finale and condemn it … I go on working and working and making it all as good as I can for the owner.”
One potential clue lies within the Enigma Variations
However “Alice” was not the one title with 5 letters… One potential clue to another lies within the Enigma Variations themselves.
Every variation is a musical portrait: Edward Elgar’s spouse, associates masculine and female, and, as grand finale, Elgar himself. The person titles are fanciful nicknames, video games of phrase affiliation. ‘Nimrod,’ a legendary hunter, refers to August Jaeger, his editor at Novello. Jaeger means hunter in German; Nimrod is a hunter. And so forth.
However the penultimate variation – the unfortunate thirteenth (and sure, Elgar was superstitious about it) is headed solely by three dots. It’s a young piece throughout which a rustle of side-drum mimics the sound of a steamer’s engine, whereas the clarinet quotes Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Affluent Voyage. This variation is now considered a tribute to Elgar’s old flame, Helen Weaver, a younger violinist to whom he had been engaged for a number of months. After her mom’s demise, nonetheless, Helen broke off with him and emigrated to New Zealand – a transfer that entailed an extended sea voyage. It’s doubtless that well being causes decided this transfer and that she, like her mom, was affected by tuberculosis. Elgar was left behind, heartbroken. As for the concerto, a robust case might exist for Helen – a violinist with a reputation 5 letters lengthy – because the soul enshrined therein.
Extra complicated options might exist
Extra complicated options might exist, too. By the point Edward Elgar wrote the Violin Concerto, a lot of his associates of Enigma Variations fame have been now not alive. The Spanish quote, from the novel Gil Blas by Alain-René Lesage, is drawn from a passage through which a pupil reads an epitaph on a poet’s tomb. Elgar’s biographer Jerrold Northrop Moore means that behind every of the concerto’s actions lay each a residing inspiration and a ghost: Alice Stuart-Wortley and Helen Weaver within the first motion, Elgar’s spouse and his mom within the second, Billy Reed and the late Jaeger (‘Nimrod’), within the finale.
Nonetheless, Elgar had a penchant for puzzles and assuredly knew their price when it comes to publicity. When he positioned that inscription on the Violin Live performanceo, he knew full nicely how intrigued his public could be. Analysis by Elgar’s biographer Michael Kennedy steered that the unique inscription was ‘El alma del’ – the additional ‘l’ implying a particularly female recipient. It appears the composer then modified this particularly to deepen the thriller. “The final ‘de’ leaves it indefinite as to…gender,” he wrote to a pal. “Now guess.”
We’ve been guessing ever since. And but, who might escape the impression, from this most elegiac of violin concertos, that the soul enshrined therein is that of its composer: E-L-G-A-R…
Beneficial recording
Our really useful recording of Elgar’s Violin Concerto is carried out by Nicola Benedetti with the London Philharmonic Orchestra carried out by Vladimir Jurowski. Geoff Brown at The Instances famous, “She takes on an epic and makes magic”, and The Guardian’s music critic Erica Jeal noticed, “Benedetti’s tone and decisiveness is made for this work, and she brings an understated edge to the added miniatures, too.”
Nicola Benedetti’s recording of Elgar’s Violin Concerto has been digitally launched.
