Composers out of their comfort zone

[Pabmusic]

Surely much further into the frozen wastes of discomfortland is Elgar's piano music. I have a few bits played by John Ogdon as fillers to his LP of the piano quintet: all utterly forgettable IMO - I speak in sorrow as an Elgar-lover. Has anyone ever bothered to record a complete cycle? I guess by now somebody must have, in which case the key question is: Did anyone buy it?

Yes, there have been several recordings, including a complete review by John McCabe on a Prelude LP. Yes, and I for one bought it (and substantial collections since then by Peter Pettinger, Ashley Wass, Anthony Goldstone and David Owen Norris).

Trouble is, it's not easy to decide quite what is Elgar's 'piano' music. His only pieces that don't exist in other forms are the Concert Allegro, the late Sonatina (written for beginners), and the short 'parlour' pieces In Smyrna, Chantant, Griffinesque, Presto, Skizze, Serenade and Adieu. That's it. A few others are better known in the orchestral dress he also gave them (May-Song, for instance). There's also the piano arrangement of the Enigma, that he made for home performance. All have been recorded.

The only piece of any weight is the Concert Allegro, which is actually incomplete. Elgar tinkered with it for years (it was performed by Fanny Davies) but was never satisfied with it; it sounds it, too. The score has many pencilled suggestions for orchestration, but he never did anything more with it. There is a recording of it as a piano & orchestra piece, the arrangement by Ian Farrington.

There's also the Five Improvisations (DON has transcribed them, so they have been published) that HMV recorded with Elgar at the piano. They weren't exactly improvisations, because EE arrived at the studio with sketches, but he then tinkered around them to provide five takes. Again, the musical quality is not very high, but remembering that the 'Enigma' came out of Elgar's absent-minded improvising at the piano, the recordings are valuable.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

There's also the Five Improvisations (DON has transcribed them, so they have been published) that HMV recorded with Elgar at the piano. They weren't exactly improvisations, because EE arrived at the studio with sketches, but he then tinkered around them to provide five takes. Again, the musical quality is not very high, but remembering that the 'Enigma' came out of Elgar's absent-minded improvising at the piano, the recordings are valuable.

Elgar later incorporated the 2nd Improvisation into his projected Piano Concerto - as the slow movement.

[Pabmusic]

Elgar later incorporated the 2nd Improvisation into his projected Piano Concerto - as the slow movement.

Yes, so he did.