| Symphony No. 2 (elgar) |
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:Dedicated to the Memory of His late Majesty King Edward VII . :This Symphony designed early in 1910 to be a loyal tribute, bears its present dedication with the gracious approval of His Majesty the KingGeorge V. : March 16 th, 1911. The score of the symphony is prefaced by a quotation from Shelley , from his poem ''Invocation'': :Rarely, rarely comest thou, :Spirit of delight! The symphony is scored for thirteen woodwinds (three Flute s, one doubling Piccolo ; two Oboe s and English Horn ; Eb Clarinet , two Bb clarinets, and Bass Clarinet ; two Bassoon s and Contrabassoon ), four Horn s, three Trumpet s, three Trombone s, Tuba , Timpani , percussion (including Snare Drum , Bass Drum , Tambourine , and Cymbal s), two Harp s, and strings. It is in four movements:
Just as in his first symphony, there is no explicit programme. Elgar wrote afterwards about the work: "It ... represents the 'passionate pilgrimage' of a soul; ... the last movement represents the final issue of his 'passion' in noble action, and ... the last two pages {Link without Title} the apotheosis and the eternal issue of the soul's pilgrimage." Parts of the symphony he sketched in described it as "the tender '' Götterdämmerung '' of the entire Edwardian era," and indeed the entire symphony has an elegiac quality, exceeded perhaps only by his later Cello Concerto (1919). The première, on 24 May 1911, at one of the concerts of the London Festival, was a disappointment to Elgar. The concert was not well attended, despite the tremendous success of the Violin Concerto the previous autumn. His friend the violinist W. H. Reed noted that though Elgar was called to the platform several times, he "missed that unmistakable note produced when the audience, even an English audience, is thoroughly roused." Reed records Elgar as saying to him, "What is the matter with them, Billy? They sit there like a lot of stuffed pigs." This may have been due to the mood of the piece; unlike the First Symphony and the Violin Concerto it ends not in a blaze of orchestral splendour but quietly and wistfully. Despite this the symphony has long since come to rival its predecessor in popularity, and is no less frequently programmed or recorded. SOURCES
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