ELGAR Sympnony # 1 op 55; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Andre Previn, cond.
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Sir Edward Elgar was born 150 years ago on 2nd June 1857 at Broadheath, a village some three miles from the small city of Worcester in the English West Midlands. [d. 23 February 1934] ...

Hans Richter called Elgar's first symphony the "greatest symphony of modern times" and to my taste it's the most important symphony since Mozart's 40th. Elgar stumbled on a simple, noble theme, quite unlike the folk-song melodies of his younger contemporary, Vaughan Williams. This motto theme drives the whole symphony through to the last movement where it reappears, deconstructed with massive brass and percussion chords punctuating its marchlike theme, but decidedly off the beat like random thunder. First performed in 1908 just before the First World War, the symphony as a whole is like a tone picture of the Victorian/Edwardian era marching off into the sunset.