Elgar Symphony No.1

SYMPHONY NO. 1 IN A FLAT MAJOR (Opus 55) Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934)

It was a hundred years ago in 1907 at the age of 50 that Elgar at last felt confident enough in his abilities to start writing his first symphony, playing the great opening theme to his wife on
27^th June. He had been considering writing a symphony “the most highly developed form of art” as far back as 1899, but had not proceeded previously. However a series of lectures on the great composers at Birmingham University earlier that year may have motivated him to take up the challenge.

He continued working on the first movement in Rome, Italy during the following winter, sending a postcard to his publisher with the opening three bars and the statement “Here it is!” He completed the 50 minute long symphony back at his home in Hereford, applying the final touches on
25^th September 1908.

He dedicated it to the great conductor, Hans Richter, a “true artist and true friend” who premièred the symphony with the Hallé in Manchester on
3^rd December 1908. It was an immediate and almost unprecedented success, with the audience spontaneously bursting into cheers and loud handclaps, with Elgar being called to the stage after the Adagio – before the symphony had even finished! Afterwards he was called back to the stage time and time again. It was possibly the greatest success of Elgar’s life.

The next day Richter travelled to London to rehearse with the London Symphony Orchestra, famously saying to the musicians “Let us now rehearse the greatest symphony of modern times – and not only in this country”. Its popularity spread all over the world with in the following year there being 82 performances – as widespread as Chicago, Toronto, Berlin, Vienna, St.Petersburg and Sydney. Richard Strauss called Elgar “the first English progressive” – we forget today how ‘modern’ this music sounded at the time.

The first symphony is written in the great romantic tradition started by Beethoven of ‘pure’ music expressing feelings too deep for words. Elgar said “There is no programme beyond a wide experience of human life with a great charity (love) and a massive hope in the future”. However he did give a further clue to what he was thinking when he wrote it by saying
”It is written out of a full life-experience and is meant to include the innumerable phases of joy and sorrow, struggle and conquest, and especially between the ideal and actual life”.

The symphony is written for full late-romantic orchestra with three flutes and piccolo, three oboes with cor anglais, two clarinets with bass clarinet, two bassoons with contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, snare drum, two harps and strings. Elgar uses these forces with the utmost skill, to provide clarity and a rewarding experience for both audience and musicians to make the symphony orchestra “the vehicle of the highest form of art known to the world”.

I. Andante, Nobilmente e semplice - Allegro – The symphony opens quietly with the noble theme stated in those first three bars which Elgar quoted on his post card. From this acorn grows the whole symphony. After three minutes this is abruptly replaced by a restless and nervous Allegro as if to say maybe things are not as stable as we thought. But the noble theme from the start once again takes prominence rising to a crescendo of great grandeur which one critic called the “British Empire in tones”.

II. Allegro molto – Although not named as such by Elgar, this is really a scherzo. It is full of restlessness with wildly leaping themes and short phases. It ends with a delicate trio which Elgar wanted playing “like something you hear down the river”. The music then just slips into the great Adagio without a break…

III. Adagio – This is the movement which really brought the house down at the first performance and it is easy to see why; it is so seductive. Jaeger (of Nimrod fame) wrote to Elgar that it is “not only one of the very greatest slow movements since Beethoven”, but “we are brought near to Heaven”.

IV. Lento - Allegro – We start the finale with the same notes as opened the symphony, but now full of dread and fear like stepping in the dark. We then plunge into an Allegro resembling the second movement but now transformed into a march with certainty and nobility once again building and then with themes from throughout the symphony being thrown around. We suddenly grind to a halt, only to realize all is still well with a restatement of the main opening theme in full orchestral splendour. Although there are memories of the earlier troubles, it all ends with a “massive hope in the future”.