Solti Conducts Elgar
While I have appreciated the music of Mozart, Brahms, Mahler, and others for 60 years or so, I am a latecomer to enjoying Elgar’s music. I have done posts on Elgar’s Cello concerto and Violin concert, both of which rate among my favorites. However, one of my great admirations is Elgar’s Enigma Variations, recorded here by the Chicago Symphony under the late Sir Georg Solti.
My sense is that Elgar was a master orchestral composer. In these variations he takes a rather simple theme and develops it into a set of 14 wonderfully varied music. This music ranges from the serious, to the whimsical, joyful, and quiet moods. One of my favorites is the so-called “Nimrod” variation number 9. Within that music is a great range of moods that ends in great sadness. I remember a concert by the Chicago Symphony in Carnegie Hall, conducted by Daniel Barenboim. They began their concert with the Nimrod, as a memorial to their former conductor, Solti, who had died at that time.
As a bonus on this CD, we also get Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance Marches 1-5; Marches are always great fun to listen to, and these form a nice contrast against the Enigma Variations.
To hear samples, or to purchase, go to:
After careful research and analysis, Robert W. Padgett discovered that the missing melody to Elgar’s 110 year old “Enigma Variations” is “Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott” by the Reformation Leader Martin Luther. Known as “A Mighty Fortress is our God,” this hymn satisfies all three rules set forth by the composer:
1) It plays through and over the entire 17 bars of the “Enigma Theme.”
2) It is famous.
3) Dora Penny was intimately familiar with this work.
A sound file of “Ein’ feste Burg” played on flute “over and through” the “Enigma Theme” may be heard at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnzosoCk5o0
A sound file of “Ein’ feste Burg” played on trumpet “over and through” Variation IX “Nimrod” may be heard at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT0Sd8ESXpk
Interestingly, the biblical name “Nimrod” means “A Mighty Hunter,” and amazingly the title of the missing melody is “A Mighty Fortress.” The link between the two could not be more apparent. Variation IX was dedicated to August Jaeger, Elgar’s dear friend from Germany who championed his music at Novello. Martin Luther was German, and many prominent German composers quoted “Ein’ feste Burg” in their music: J.S. Bach, Mendelssohn, and Raff and Wagner. Elgar venerated the music of Bach, Mendelssohn and Wagner, so it should come as no surprise that he would emulate these great masters in this way.
For Robert W. Padgett’s full report of this amazing discovery go to http://enigmathemeunmasked.blogspot.com/
After careful research and analysis, Robert W. Padgett discovered that the missing melody to Elgar’s 110 year old “Enigma Variations” is “Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott” by the Reformation Leader Martin Luther. Known as “A Mighty Fortress is our God,” this hymn satisfies all three rules set forth by the composer:
1) It plays through and over the entire 17 bars of the “Enigma Theme.”
2) It is famous.
3) Dora Penny was intimately familiar with this work.
A sound file of “Ein’ feste Burg” played on flute “over and through” the “Enigma Theme” may be heard at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnzosoCk5o0
A sound file of “Ein’ feste Burg” played on trumpet “over and through” Variation IX “Nimrod” may be heard at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT0Sd8ESXpk
Interestingly, the biblical name “Nimrod” means “A Mighty Hunter,” and amazingly the title of the missing melody is “A Mighty Fortress.” The link between the two could not be more apparent. Variation IX was dedicated to August Jaeger, Elgar’s dear friend from Germany who championed his music at Novello. Martin Luther was German, and many prominent German composers quoted “Ein’ feste Burg” in their music: J.S. Bach, Mendelssohn, and Raff and Wagner. Elgar venerated the music of Bach, Mendelssohn and Wagner, so it should come as no surprise that he would emulate these great masters in this way.
For Robert W. Padgett’s full report of this amazing discovery go to http://enigmathemeunmasked.blogspot.com/