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Edward Elgar: national icon and perennial outsider

Edward Elgar, c. 1900

Edward Elgar: national icon and perennial outsider - five online talks by Richard Wigmore

Introduction

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In his life, as in his art, Edward Elgar was a man of deep contradictions. The greatest English-born composer since Purcell avidly embraced Edwardian society, yet remained forever an outsider, introverted and haunted by self-doubt. His music is commonly held to epitomise the strut and swagger of imperial Britain at its zenith. Yet much of Elgar’s finest work, from the 'Enigma' Variations that made his international reputation, to the valedictory Cello Concerto, is suffused with an intensely personal nostalgia and vulnerability. Over the course of this series, Richard Wigmore considers the character and music of the complex and paradoxical composer, whose famed grandeur and nobility coexist with a profound human intimacy.

The talks take place every Thursday from 13th February–13th March 2025 at 4.30pm (London) and, including Q&A, will last just under an hour. They are available for viewing for eight weeks after the last episode is streamed (8th May 2025).