A Fat Knight and a New King
Donald Macleod learns how Elgar shunned the coronation of King George V and created music for the Shakespearean character Falstaff.
Celebrating British Music: Donald Macleod explores the life and work of the 'quintessentially English' composer, Edward Elgar, whose musical roots lay firmly in Europe, and whose Catholicism and class background bequeathed him a lifelong sense of isolation from mainstream British society.
Today's programme has a royal thread running through it. In 1911, Elgar was commissioned to write music for the coronation of George V. He fulfilled his commission but a last-minute bout of depression kept him, and his bemused wife and child, away from the ceremony, where they were to have been honoured guests. Elgar's symphonic study of Shakespeare's Fat Knight has divided audiences. He considered it his orchestral masterpiece; others find its reputation enigmatic.
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Music Played
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Edward Elgar
Twilight, op.59 no.6
Performer: Robert Tear (Tenor) Performer: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Vernon Handley
- EMI 5 03603 2 CD 29.
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Edward Elgar
Coronation March, op.65
Performer: 大象传媒 Philharmonic Conductor: Andrew Davis
- Chandos CHAN 10570-71.
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Edward Elgar
O hearken thou, op.64
Performer: Choir of St John鈥檚 College, Cambridge Performer: Jonathan Vaughn (Organ of St John鈥檚 College, Cambridge) Conductor: Christopher Robinson
- Naxos 8. 557288.
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Edward Elgar
Falstaff (Symphonic study in C minor, op.68)
Performer: Hall茅 Orchestra Conductor: John Barbirolli
- EMI 7 69185 2.
Broadcasts
- Thu 20 Jun 2013 12:00大象传媒 Radio 3
- Thu 20 Jun 2013 18:30大象传媒 Radio 3
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