A few quick facts about the video: 1. it was done on two 3-hour rehearsals 2. not a single section of the band had ever played together in a/our band before - only the 2 percussionists 3. the video was made in 3 hours in 3 straight takes of the two segments a. movements IV & V and b. I, II & III.
Elgar did in fact work on his Third Symphony, when he had fallen in love with the 30 year old Vera Hackman in 1931 - she was his muse. He didn't finish the piece, but composer Anthony Payne did find out in the early 1990ties that Elgar had left far more sketches than people realised. For instance, the whole first movement was written out in short score, and the first 70 seconds of the work was fully scored, as were other fragments of the work. The only piece missing was the end. Payne put the whole puzzle together, came up with a pianissimo end and orchestrated the piece after the suggestions written in the sketches by Elgar and the piece was premiered by the BBC Symphony orchestra under Andrew Davis, nearly 70 years after the BBC commissioned the piece. One can clearly see that the Severn Suite can be seen as a warming up exercise for the big job ahead. Elgar's style had indeed changed over the years. Actually with Falstaff his newer style emerged. The Third Symphony is completely different from the first and second. He was in love with another woman.
The interesting fact is that although Anthony (who is a friend and mentor of mine) did a terrific job 'elaborating' the sketches of the third symphony, he did, in fact, produce a symphony in the mode of the earlier two. Critics inadvertently griped that some passages in the symphony didn't sound like Elgar - and it was those very passages that WERE the Elgar sketches. This is why I believe the SEVERN SUITE to be the real symphony - or sinfonietta if you prefer - that was true to his 1930s voice - the voice of the sketches. Although I wouldn't want to be without Anthony's elaboration of the third, I believe it to be a mistake - a mistake that seriously risks missing the point of what Elgar was truly about in the '30s - if one rejects his later voice on account of glorifying the late-Romantic voice of his earlier two symphonies. Elgar simply didn't believe in that earlier voice any more after WW1 and the death of his wife swept away the world he had previously known. Vera Hackman may well have been part of that new voice - but not the old.
@@Utoobtime27 Listening to Payne's elaboration I do not hear much of the old Elgar of the previous two symphonies. Yes, No. 3 is in the four part movement style, as is to be expected. But the music is so totally different. Elgar's style had changed, it started doing so since Falstaff.
Here is an addition set of insights from my public lecture to the American Musicological Society (New York) in 2018. I hope you get something worthwhile from it: ua-cam.com/video/yW3AQ0OVu8A/v-deo.html
Wonderful lecture and performance! I hope to hear in person someday.
A special post to note that today, 15th April 1930/2020, is the 90th Anniversary of Elgar's completion of the SEVERN SUITE manuscript.
A few quick facts about the video: 1. it was done on two 3-hour rehearsals 2. not a single section of the band had ever played together in a/our band before - only the 2 percussionists 3. the video was made in 3 hours in 3 straight takes of the two segments a. movements IV & V and b. I, II & III.
For anyone interested come join us on the Sir Edward Elgar THE SEVERN SUITE, Op. 87 (1930) Facebook page
facebook.com/groups/621651044933330/
Elgar did in fact work on his Third Symphony, when he had fallen in love with the 30 year old Vera Hackman in 1931 - she was his muse. He didn't finish the piece, but composer Anthony Payne did find out in the early 1990ties that Elgar had left far more sketches than people realised. For instance, the whole first movement was written out in short score, and the first 70 seconds of the work was fully scored, as were other fragments of the work. The only piece missing was the end. Payne put the whole puzzle together, came up with a pianissimo end and orchestrated the piece after the suggestions written in the sketches by Elgar and the piece was premiered by the BBC Symphony orchestra under Andrew Davis, nearly 70 years after the BBC commissioned the piece.
One can clearly see that the Severn Suite can be seen as a warming up exercise for the big job ahead. Elgar's style had indeed changed over the years. Actually with Falstaff his newer style emerged. The Third Symphony is completely different from the first and second. He was in love with another woman.
The interesting fact is that although Anthony (who is a friend and mentor of mine) did a terrific job 'elaborating' the sketches of the third symphony, he did, in fact, produce a symphony in the mode of the earlier two. Critics inadvertently griped that some passages in the symphony didn't sound like Elgar - and it was those very passages that WERE the Elgar sketches. This is why I believe the SEVERN SUITE to be the real symphony - or sinfonietta if you prefer - that was true to his 1930s voice - the voice of the sketches. Although I wouldn't want to be without Anthony's elaboration of the third, I believe it to be a mistake - a mistake that seriously risks missing the point of what Elgar was truly about in the '30s - if one rejects his later voice on account of glorifying the late-Romantic voice of his earlier two symphonies. Elgar simply didn't believe in that earlier voice any more after WW1 and the death of his wife swept away the world he had previously known. Vera Hackman may well have been part of that new voice - but not the old.
@@Utoobtime27 Listening to Payne's elaboration I do not hear much of the old Elgar of the previous two symphonies. Yes, No. 3 is in the four part movement style, as is to be expected. But the music is so totally different. Elgar's style had changed, it started doing so since Falstaff.
Here is the 'MINUET' with restored muted soprano cornet & flugel horn: ua-cam.com/video/5PAe9OQ5s-c/v-deo.html
Here is THE SECRETS OF THE SEVERN SUITE REVEALED ua-cam.com/video/56TAyk9Qk8k/v-deo.html
Who won the race to the end?
Our Teddy!
Here is an addition set of insights from my public lecture to the American Musicological Society (New York) in 2018. I hope you get something worthwhile from it: ua-cam.com/video/yW3AQ0OVu8A/v-deo.html
Most of these tempi are too fast. Pomposo? Too fast. Grandioso? Too fast. Allegro molto? Too fast - it's not vivace or presto.