2007 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sir Edward Elgar. He was a true outsider, being a Catholic and of humble origins, and he was also a man of contradictions.
He became famous for a piece of music that he regretted in many ways. Set to words by A.H. Benson, Pomp and Circumstance became the ultimate piece of jingoism at a time when Elgar himself understood the folly and insanity of millions of men and women dying in the First World War. Elgar was at the same time sycophantic towards the Royal Family and to high society and yet it was a society in which he was always ill at ease. He was a depressive with a problematic marriage who craved recognition. And yet he was unquestionably the greatest musical genius that England had produced since Purcell.
As interest in Elgar and his music grows apace, here is a book of critical essays which at last uncover the real Elgar- devoid of hagiography and false illusion.
