From the elegiac Nimrod to the poignant Cello Concerto and his magnificent choral works, there is far more to this
British composer than pomp and circumstance
If
Britain has a national composer, it is Edward Elgar (1857-1934). His
music is often seen as epitomising the smug Victorian world into which he was born, but though he wrote his quota of “patriotic” pieces, he was much more than a flag-waving imperialist; his influences and musical outlook were profoundly European rather than home-grown. Elgar was the most significant composer Britain has produced since Henry Purcell, and his finest music – the symphonies and concertos – easily stands comparison with that of his late-romantic contemporaries Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler.