In the South (Alassio)

[1] A three-day festival of his music was planned for March the following year at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in the presence of Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.

Inspiration for the symphony eluded him, but the local atmosphere – "the thoughts and sensations of one beautiful afternoon in the Vale of Andora" – gave him the ideas for a concert overture.

[8] Arthur Nikisch introduced the work to German audiences in Berlin on 2 December 1904,[9] and it was given in Vienna in March 1905,[10] Cologne, under Fritz Steinbach, the following month,[11] and Prague the following year.

[12] The work is written for a full symphony orchestra comprising 3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, 3 timpani, percussion (bass drum, cymbals, side drum, triangle and glockenspiel), harp and the string section.

[2] Sir Donald Tovey has compared it with the "Straussian panache" of Don Juan – "a group of heroic themes swinging along at full speed from the outset".

[2] The "canto popolare" so convincingly struck an authentically Italian note that it was widely assumed to be an adaptation of a popular local song, although it was entirely of Elgar's own invention.

After the premiere The Musical Times found the themes "subjected to elaborate and remarkably individual treatment", the scoring "superb", and the whole piece "perhaps the most beautiful orchestral work which the composer has given to the world".

[2] Jerrold Northrop Moore judges the piece to have symphonic aspirations – "the wish for the Symphony still unachieved"[22] and Percy Young similarly comments on an overextended structural design.

The subtitle 'Alassio' and the modest description 'concert overture' for what is virtually a tone-poem may have proved discouraging or confusing – unfortunately, in the early stages of appreciation, titles do matter.