At the Spoleto Festival, I rendezvoused with a dozen of my old friends from the Seattle Chamber Music Society, attended two concerts on Memorial Day, and dined with them on the bay at Folly Beach. It was fun.
A piece from the second concert is one of my very favorite pieces by Edward Elgar. He is remembered primarily for the Pomp and Circumstance Marches used at graduation exercises, but he wrote a lot of fine music. The Introduction and Allegro for String Orchestra, Op. 47, was written for the London Symphony Orchestra in 1905 because of his friendship with the string players in the group. Elgar cuts the orchestra down to a small group of strings, and he sets up a string quartet (two violins, viola, and cello) as a separate unit in the ensemble. The viola gets a lot of juicy music because Elgar was a violist. It’s a fine 16 minute bon-bon.
He starts with a three and a half minute introduction where he lets the string quartet lay out some of the themes he will be working with.
At 3:32, the allegro section begins, using three subjects.
At 7:26, Elgar starts a long and passionate fugue (multiple counterpoint) that is difficult for conductors because it’s all about traffic control and the proper cues. He wrote it specifically for the second violin section of the LSO because he thought they were good enough to handle it well.
At 13:20 he recaps the allegro subjects and gives it the perfect pizzicato ending.
Elgar: Introduction and Allegro for String Orchestra, Op. 47
This performance is by a Korean ensemble, and it’s good, but a little stiff. Asian orchestras and chamber groups tend to have troubles with flow, probably because they don’t grow up with this music.
I rendezvoused with a dozen of my old friends from the Seattle Chamber Music Society, attended two concerts on Memorial Day, and dined with them on the bay at Folly Beach. It was fun
Prof gets to have all the fun!
Still waiting unpatiently (:)) for the website & know that Libertina must be working hard at it!
Thanks, maestro, for always doing your homework no matter how busy you are! :)
Good evening, almost morning, Publius...((HUGS))...sounds like you’ve been busy having a good time with old friends. Very cool!