Elgar - Enigma Variations / REMASTERED (Century's rec.: Pierre Monteux, London Symphony Orchestra)

Elgar: Enigma Variations, Op. 36 by Pierre Monteux
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Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) - Enigma Variations by Pierre Monteux / Remastered.
Click to activate the English subtitles for the presentation (00:00-03:33)
Enigma Variations Op.36
00:00 Theme
01:15 Variation I : C.A.E.
03:12 Variation II : H.D.S.-P
03:59 Variation III : R.B.T.
05:21 Variation IV : W.M.B.
05:48 Variation V : R.P.A.
07:43 Variation VI : YSOBEL
09:02 Variation VII : TROYTE
09:59 Variation VIII : W.N.
11:53 Variation IX : NIMROD
15:42 Variation X : DORABELLA
18:21 Variation XI : G.R.S.
19:16 Variation XII : B.G.N.
21:42 Variation XIII : ***
24:20 Variation XIV : E.D.U.

London Symphonic Orchestra (error on the image title)
Conductor: Pierre Monteux
Recorded in 1958, at London
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Unhappy with London, where they had settled after their marriage, Elgar and his wife returned to Malvern in 1891. Having settled into a comfortable home, they led a happy life, and Elgar experienced the most creative period of his life. The high point of his activity was, after ten years, a piece called Enigma Variations (or "Variations on an Original Theme") Op. 36.

His circle of friends had expanded. Those who served as models for the musical portraits that make up the Enigma Variations were part of his immediate circle: together they played chamber music, golf, went on vacation, rode bicycles or went fox hunting. The idea for the Variations came to Elgar by chance one evening in October 1898. His cantata Caractacus had just been performed at the Leeds Festival, and he was sitting at the piano, tapping out a melody without thinking about much: his wife asked him what he was playing; "nothing," he replied, "but perhaps something might come of it. To amuse her, he launched into an improvisation, trying to caricature some of his friends as he went along: "Here is Powell at the piano" he said, imitating the way this friend, a member of the same trio as himself, was carried away by passion when he played. It was then the turn of the cellist "Billy" Baker, a noisy and somewhat boastful character.

The process of variation is indeed as old as music itself, but no musician had ever used it to depict, by making the same theme undergo successive transformations, the characters of human beings very different from each other. In its simplicity, this idea was to produce wonderful effects. Some time later, Elgar explained his intentions in a letter to his regular confidant, August Jaeger, a German employed at a London music publishing house, Novello:

"I have sketched out a series of variations (...) on an original theme: this work has amused me because I have given them as titles the nicknames I have chosen for some of my friends - yours is Nimrod, I have written each of the variations with the intention of representing the character of the individuals who have served as my models; my procedure has been to imagine the variation as I think they themselves would have written it - if they had been foolish enough to engage in such an exercise. It's an odd idea, the result will be fun for those who are in the know and won't affect those who are not. What do you think?"

He worked very quickly and immediately began to judge the effect of his findings by playing them on the piano to his various friends. The orchestral score was completed in February 1899. At the premiere in London in June, the work was an immense success with the English public, which was to prove long-lasting. Click to activate the English subtitles for the presentation (00:00-03:33)

Elgar - Enigma Variations (Century's recording: Sir John Barbirolli, Philharmonia Orchestra)
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Edward Elgar PLAYLIST (reference recordings):    • Edward Elgar (1857-1934)