Edward Elgar : NPR

Elgar's 'Enigma' Still Keeps Music Detectives Busy

Bob Padgett's notes on Elgar's Enigma Variations . The Texas musician continues to search for hidden clues in the British composer's famous piece. Daniel Estrin/NPR hide caption

toggle caption

Daniel Estrin/NPR

Elgar's 'Enigma' Still Keeps Music Detectives Busy

March 15, 2018 • When Edward Elgar debuted what came to be called his "Enigma Variations" in 1899, he left tantalizing clues in the score about a mystery contained in the music.

Elgar's 'Enigma' Still Keeps Music Detectives Busy

Listen · 5:58 5:58

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/593771944/594062993" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

A Year Of Listening Desperately: 10 Classical Albums That Saved 2016

Soprano Barbara Hannigan shines in let me tell you by Hans Abrahamsen. Elmer de Haas hide caption

toggle caption

Elmer de Haas

A Year Of Listening Desperately: 10 Classical Albums That Saved 2016

December 22, 2016 • The contentious presidential election colored the listening habits of NPR's classical producer.

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge processing out of their wedding ceremony at Westminster Abbey in April 2011. Chris Jackson/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption

Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Marches Madness: Royal Wedding Edition

March 26, 2013 • Hear the march that accompanied the wedding of William and Kate — and Charles and Diana: William Walton's Crown Imperial, originally written for the Duke of Windsor.

Measures Of Affection: Five Musical Love Letters

Composer Peter Lieberson wrote his Neruda Songs for his wife, mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. Johansen Krause/Peter Lieberson hide caption

toggle caption

Johansen Krause/Peter Lieberson

Measures Of Affection: Five Musical Love Letters

February 13, 2013 • For centuries composers have written love letters, but not by scratching words on paper. Their language is music. Hear five passionate outpourings by the likes of Mahler, Janáček and Peter Lieberson.

Measures Of Affection: Five Musical Love Letters

Listen · 6:08 6:08

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/171828657/172041229" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Alisa Weilerstein Plays Elgar: Exploring Music With An Intense Past

Cellist Alisa Weilerstein Jamie Jung/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

toggle caption

Jamie Jung/Courtesy of the artist

Alisa Weilerstein Plays Elgar: Exploring Music With An Intense Past

December 4, 2012 • The celebrated young American cellist walks us through her recording of this "devastating" concerto written just after the end of World War I. She collaborated with conductor Daniel Barenboim, whose late wife, Jacqueline du Pre, was the standard-bearer for this work.

Alisa Weilerstein Plays Elgar: Exploring Music With An Intense Past

Listen · 10:49 10:49

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/166492578/166519617" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Young Cellist With An Old Soul Plays Elgar, Elliott Carter

Cellist Alisa Weilerstein. Gerardo Antonio Sanchez Torres/courtesy of the artist hide caption

toggle caption

Gerardo Antonio Sanchez Torres/courtesy of the artist

Review

Young Cellist With An Old Soul Plays Elgar, Elliott Carter

November 6, 2012 • Hear an excerpt of MacArthur "genius" cellist Alisa Weilerstein's excellent pairing of the Elgar Cello Concerto — recorded with Daniel Barenboim, whose late wife Jacqueline Du Pre's name was synonymous with this piece— and the cello concerto by Elliott Carter, who died yesterday at 103.

Elgar's Belated Symphony: Majestic, Noble And Perfectly British

British composer Edward Elgar, seated at his desk at Severn House in Hampstead. His Symphony No. 1 was hailed as the best British symphony ever when it debuted in 1908. Reginald Haines/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption

Reginald Haines/Getty Images

Deceptive Cadence

Elgar's Belated Symphony: Majestic, Noble And Perfectly British

May 2, 2012 • Conductor Marin Alsop muses on the enduring qualities of the English composer's first symphony.

Elgar's Belated Symphony: Majestic, Noble And Perfectly British

Listen · 10:06 10:06

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/151884589/152079785" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Talk Like An Opera Geek: Managing Mezzos, Altos And Contraltos

Don't mix up your mezzos and contraltos. iStock hide caption

toggle caption

iStock

Deceptive Cadence

Talk Like An Opera Geek: Managing Mezzos, Altos And Contraltos

November 16, 2011 • Learn to love our low-voiced lady opera singers who get to play everything from royalty to rivals.

Cellist Alisa Weilerstein. Jamie Jung hide caption

toggle caption

Jamie Jung

Music Interviews

A Cellist Is Chosen, And Challenged

May 27, 2011 • A consummate artist even before she was out of her teens, 29-year-old Alisa Weilerstein has already been granted extraordinary opportunities, from playing for President Obama to taking on an iconic musical assignment.

A Cellist Is Chosen, And Challenged

Listen · 7:59 7:59

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/136717840/136742710" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano, won the 2010 Gramophone Artist of the Year award. Sheila Rock hide caption

toggle caption

Sheila Rock

Deceptive Cadence

2010 Gramophone Award Winners Announced

October 4, 2010 • The venerable British classical music magazine has announced winners in 24 categories.

William Byrd: "Domine non sum dignus" (The Cardinall's Musick/Andrew Carwood, dir.)

3:02

Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/130321786/130277658" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

In Praise Of Pachyderms (And Other Critters): The 'Deceptive Cadence' Puzzler

Hooray. It's Elephant Appreciation Day! iStock hide caption

toggle caption

iStock

Deceptive Cadence

In Praise Of Pachyderms (And Other Critters): The 'Deceptive Cadence' Puzzler

September 22, 2010 • To mark National Elephant Appreciation day, test your wits with a "critter quiz." Your job? Match each musical example to the creature it represents.

Fritz Kreisler's Music (And His Violin) At WGBH

Nikolaj Znaider plays a 1741 Guarneri once owned by the famed Fritz Kriesler. Matthias Creutziger hide caption

toggle caption

Matthias Creutziger

Favorite Sessions

Fritz Kreisler's Music (And His Violin) At WGBH

WGBH Radio

January 28, 2010 • Danish violinist Nikolaj Znaider plays one of the most famous fiddles around: a 1741 Guarneri del Gesu that once belonged to the beloved violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler. Hear Znaider play works by Kreisler in the WGBH studios.

Hear Nikolaj Znaider Play Kreisler At WGBH

20:08

Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/123065333/122998316" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Cellist Jacqueline Du Pre, recording with Sir John Barbirolli. David Farrell/EMI Classics hide caption

toggle caption

David Farrell/EMI Classics

The NPR Classical 50

Quiet Anguish In Elgar's Cello Concerto

November 10, 2009 • The concerto was the English composer's last major work for orchestra, as well as his most confessional. In this recording, cellist Jacqueline Du Pre gives one of her finest performances, exposing both gentleness in the pain and an edge to the tenderness.

Ted Libbey And Lisa Simeone Recommend Music By Elgar

Listen · 4:33 4:33

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/120248259/120122979" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

SPCO In Concert: Fiddlers, Corn And Fireworks

Sarah Rubinstein

Classics in Concert

SPCO In Concert: Fiddlers, Corn And Fireworks

American Public Media

August 10, 2009 • Conductor Nicholas McGegan bids farewell to the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in a concert that sparkles with Handel's Royal Fireworks and weaves an array of magic spells. Also featured are works by Edward Elgar and contemporary English composer Peter Maxwell Davies.

SPCO In Concert: Fiddlers, Corn And Fireworks

50:23

Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/111509747/111505847" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Songs Of Love And Loathing

WGUC's Classical Love Notes

91.7 WVXU

February 10, 2009 • One of music's greatest strengths is its capacity to stir the emotions. For Valentine's Day, WGUC's Mark Perzel offers this list of five Classical works inspired by the power of love.

Classics in Concert

Edward Elgar's Post-War Concerto of Conviction

October 31, 2007 • After WWI, the British were lamenting a lost era and eager for something new. Edward Elgar gave them a meditative, compelling cello concerto. Steven Isserlis plays Elgar's autumnal music in concert with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.

Steven Isserlis Plays Elgar's concerto with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra

Audio is no longer available

Music Interviews

Edward Elgar, Britain's Musical Icon, Turns 150

June 2, 2007 • We know him as the man who wrote the music used at graduations, but in Britain, Edward Elgar means a lot more. It's the 150th anniversary of the birth of the composer who gave the British "Pomp and Circumstance" and one little "Enigma."

Edward Elgar, Britain's Musical Icon, Turns 150

Listen

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/10640054/10640055" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Transcript

Elgar, Misunderstood Man of 'Hope and Glory'

Sir Edward Elgar. Wikimedia Commons hide caption

toggle caption

Wikimedia Commons

August 15, 2006 • It was written in 1919, and in its bittersweet beauty, many listeners hear an elegy for those who died during WWI. It's the Cello Concerto by Edward Elgar. Our concert performance took place two weeks ago at the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming. Lynn Harrell is the cello soloist, Donald Runnicles conducts.

Bittersweet Beauty: Elgar's Cello Concerto

Audio will be available later today.

Music

Elgar on Strings: The English Chamber Orchestra

August 9, 2006 • Edward Elgar said he learned to write for strings by listening to the music of Handel. Elgar based his Introduction and Allegro for String Quartet and String Orchestra on Handel's concerto grosso style. The English Chamber Orchestra, with conductor Roy Goodman, gives a performance on the road in Montpellier, France.

Elgar on Strings: The English Chamber Orchestra

Audio will be available later today.

Musicians in Their Own Words

Musicians in Their Own Words: Hilary Hahn

October 13, 2004 • Hilary Hahn has already recorded landmark violin concertos with the world's great orchestras. She describes the meditative experience of playing Bach alone — and of trying to sound like a bird.

Musicians in Their Own Words: Hilary Hahn

Listen

Download
Embed <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/4107716/4107717" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">