Symphony No. 1 (Elgar)
It was widely known that Elgar had been planning a symphony for more than ten years, and the announcement that he had finally completed it aroused enormous interest.
The symphony achieved what The Musical Times described as "immediate and phenomenal success", with a hundred performances in Britain, continental Europe and America within just over a year of its première.
The symphony is regularly programmed by British orchestras, and features occasionally in concert programmes in North America and continental Europe.
[1] In 1899 he wrote to his friend August Jaeger (the "Nimrod" of the Enigma Variations), "Now as to Gordon: the thing possesses me, but I can't write it down yet.
William Henry Reed, who played in the LSO at that concert, recalled, "Arriving at the Adagio, [Richter] spoke almost with the sound of tears in his voice and said: 'Ah!
Within weeks of the première the symphony was performed in New York under Walter Damrosch, Vienna under Ferdinand Löwe, St. Petersburg under Alexander Siloti, and Leipzig under Artur Nikisch.
It is exquisite in the adagio, and in the first and second allegros, the latter a kind of scherzo; when the rhythmic impulse, the power and the passion are at their extreme height, when the music becomes almost frenzied in its superb energy, the sense of sheer beauty is still strong."
The Morning Post, wrote, "This is a work for the future, and will stand as a legacy for coming generations; in it are the loftiness and nobility that indicate a masterpiece, though its full appreciation will only be from the most serious-minded; to-day we recognise it as a possession of which to be proud."
It complained that the work was derivative of Mendelssohn, Brahms and Wagner, and thought the theme of the slow movement "cheap ready-made material".
"[11] This adverse view was in contrast with the praise in The Times: "[A] great work of art, which is lofty in conception and sincere in expression, and which must stand as a landmark in the development of the younger school of English music."
"[13] The New York Times, which also detected the influence of Parsifal, and, in the finale, of Verdi's Aida, called the symphony "a work of such importance that conductors will not lightly let it drop.
Elgar wrote, "the opening theme is intended to be simple &, in intention, noble & elevating ... the sort of ideal call – in the sense of persuasion, not coercion or command – & something above every day & sordid things.
"[15] The musicologist Michael Kennedy writes "One cannot call it a motto-theme, but it is an idée fixe, and after its first quiet statement, the full orchestra repeat it fortissimo.
It gently subsides back to woodwind and violas and abruptly switches to D minor, an extraordinary choice of key for the first allegro of a Symphony in A flat.
[16] It has also been speculated that the contrast was intended to represent two sides of Elgar's own personality – the successful and popular 'Bard of Empire' is heard in the noble A flat motif, set against the inner worries that continually troubled him.
According to Reed, "Someone once had the temerity to ask Elgar which version, the allegro or the adagio, was written first; but the question was not very well received and the subject was not pursued.
"[22] The finale begins in D minor with a slow repeat of one of the subsidiary themes of the first movement, showing Elgar in "one of his most dreamy and mysterious moods.
[23] In a manner recalling the motivic transformation between the second and third movement, this material is later heard at half speed accompanied by harp arpeggios and with a lyrical string melody.
The movement builds to a climax and ends with the nobilmente opening theme of the symphony returning "orchestrated with glittering splendour" to bring the work to a "triumphant and confident" conclusion.
