Concert Allegro (Elgar)
Encyclopedia
The Concert Allegro, Op. 46 by Sir Edward Elgar
is a piece of music for solo piano. It takes about 10 minutes to perform. It is the only piano work he wrote that was designed for concert performance. It is in the key of C major and was written in 1901, at the request of the pianist Fanny Davies
.
Elgar was not a great lover of the piano, and he was busy organising the first performance of his oratorio The Dream of Gerontius
in Düsseldorf
. He wrote the piece reluctantly, only after constant pleading from Davies for a new piece for her repertoire. When he did start on it, however, he wrote quickly, and indeed it shows some evidence of hasty composition. Elgar consulted Fanny Davies during the writing of the work, and she made a number of suggestions for improvements, signing her notations "Humbly, F.D.". Elgar accepted most of these ideas.
Elgar dedicated the Concert Allegro to Fanny Davies, and she gave the first performance at St James's Hall, London
, on 2 December 1901, at a concert called "Purcell to Elgar". The critic of The Times
described it as "like a marriage between Bach
and Liszt
". (This comment has also been attributed to the conductor Hans Richter
.) The first performance has been described as "unconvincing and dubious", and one writer has said Davies "fatally bruised" the work.
In light of these criticisms of Davies' playing and of the work itself, Elgar decided to revise it and shorten it by removing some of the repeats. He also toyed with the idea of converting it into a piano concerto (he even altered the title page from "Concerto [without orchestra]" to "Piano and orchestra"), but this never came to fruition. His later work on a piano concerto, started in 1913, left unfinished at his death and now completed by other hands as Op. 90, was based on unrelated material.
In the meantime, Fanny Davies performed the original version a handful of further times up until 1906. Elgar worked on a revision, without ever completing it, and then the score disappeared. He may have even given it away, not intending to work on the piece any further (he had attempted to publish it but Novello's declined). The music critic of The Times in 1942 claimed to have seen a rough copy of the score. Some time before 1942, the composer and conductor Anthony Bernard
was asked to arrange the piece for piano and orchestra, but decided against doing so. Bernard's study was bombed during World War II and many of his papers were destroyed, the score of the Concert Allegro being assumed to have suffered that fate. After Bernard's death in 1963, however, his widow found the manuscript among his papers.
It contained many crossings out, some additions, and a mass of corrections. A performing version was realised by John Ogdon
and Diana McVeigh. Ogdon gave the first modern performance of the work, on British television on 2 February 1969. Ogdon also recorded the work and included it in his concert repertoire thereafter. This version has now been recorded by a number of other pianists.
The original score, with all the repeats that Elgar had intended, has been realised and performed by David Owen Norris
.
It has also been arranged as a piece for piano and orchestra by Iain Farrington
.
There is some confusion about the opus number for the Concert Allegro. It appears in reference sources as either "Op. 41" or "Op. 46". Elgar wrote "Op. 41" on the autograph score. At that time he was reserving Op. 46 for a concert overture to be called Falstaff. This work did not see the light of day in that form but became the symphonic study Falstaff
in 1913. However, that work was published as Op. 68. In the meantime, he allocated Op. 41 to two songs to words by A. C. Benson
. Although never published in Elgar's lifetime, the Concert Allegro was given the opus number 46.
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
is a piece of music for solo piano. It takes about 10 minutes to perform. It is the only piano work he wrote that was designed for concert performance. It is in the key of C major and was written in 1901, at the request of the pianist Fanny Davies
Fanny Davies
Fanny Davies was an English pianist who was particularly admired in Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, and the early schools, but was also a very early London performer of the works of Debussy and Scriabin...
.
Elgar was not a great lover of the piano, and he was busy organising the first performance of his oratorio The Dream of Gerontius
The Dream of Gerontius
The Dream of Gerontius, popularly called just Gerontius, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment before God and settling into Purgatory...
in Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
. He wrote the piece reluctantly, only after constant pleading from Davies for a new piece for her repertoire. When he did start on it, however, he wrote quickly, and indeed it shows some evidence of hasty composition. Elgar consulted Fanny Davies during the writing of the work, and she made a number of suggestions for improvements, signing her notations "Humbly, F.D.". Elgar accepted most of these ideas.
Elgar dedicated the Concert Allegro to Fanny Davies, and she gave the first performance at St James's Hall, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, on 2 December 1901, at a concert called "Purcell to Elgar". The critic of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
described it as "like a marriage between Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
and Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
". (This comment has also been attributed to the conductor Hans Richter
Hans Richter (conductor)
Hans Richter was an Austrian orchestral and operatic conductor.-Biography:Richter was born in Raab , Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother was opera-singer Jozsefa Csazenszky. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory...
.) The first performance has been described as "unconvincing and dubious", and one writer has said Davies "fatally bruised" the work.
In light of these criticisms of Davies' playing and of the work itself, Elgar decided to revise it and shorten it by removing some of the repeats. He also toyed with the idea of converting it into a piano concerto (he even altered the title page from "Concerto [without orchestra]" to "Piano and orchestra"), but this never came to fruition. His later work on a piano concerto, started in 1913, left unfinished at his death and now completed by other hands as Op. 90, was based on unrelated material.
In the meantime, Fanny Davies performed the original version a handful of further times up until 1906. Elgar worked on a revision, without ever completing it, and then the score disappeared. He may have even given it away, not intending to work on the piece any further (he had attempted to publish it but Novello's declined). The music critic of The Times in 1942 claimed to have seen a rough copy of the score. Some time before 1942, the composer and conductor Anthony Bernard
Anthony Bernard
Anthony Bernard was an English conductor, organist, pianist and composer.-Early life:He was born Alan Charles Butler, the son of a Thames lighterman and changed his name by deed poll in 1919 according to the National Archives....
was asked to arrange the piece for piano and orchestra, but decided against doing so. Bernard's study was bombed during World War II and many of his papers were destroyed, the score of the Concert Allegro being assumed to have suffered that fate. After Bernard's death in 1963, however, his widow found the manuscript among his papers.
It contained many crossings out, some additions, and a mass of corrections. A performing version was realised by John Ogdon
John Ogdon
John Andrew Howard Ogdon was an English pianist and composer.-Biography:Ogdon was born in Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire, and attended Manchester Grammar School, before studying at the Royal Northern College of Music between 1953 and 1957, where his fellow students under Richard Hall...
and Diana McVeigh. Ogdon gave the first modern performance of the work, on British television on 2 February 1969. Ogdon also recorded the work and included it in his concert repertoire thereafter. This version has now been recorded by a number of other pianists.
The original score, with all the repeats that Elgar had intended, has been realised and performed by David Owen Norris
David Owen Norris
-Life:Norris was born in 1953. He studied music at Keble College, Oxford where he was organ scholar; he is now an Honorary Fellow of the college. After leaving Oxford, he studied composition, and worked at the Royal Opera House as a repetiteur...
.
It has also been arranged as a piece for piano and orchestra by Iain Farrington
Iain Farrington
Iain Farrington is a British pianist, organist, composer and arranger. He works regularly with some of the country's leading singers, instrumentalists and choirs, both in concert and as a répétiteur, as well as giving solo recitals...
.
There is some confusion about the opus number for the Concert Allegro. It appears in reference sources as either "Op. 41" or "Op. 46". Elgar wrote "Op. 41" on the autograph score. At that time he was reserving Op. 46 for a concert overture to be called Falstaff. This work did not see the light of day in that form but became the symphonic study Falstaff
Falstaff (Elgar)
Falstaff – Symphonic Study in C minor, Op.68, is an orchestral work by the English composer Edward Elgar. Though not so designated by the composer, it is a symphonic poem in the tradition of Franz Liszt and Richard Strauss...
in 1913. However, that work was published as Op. 68. In the meantime, he allocated Op. 41 to two songs to words by A. C. Benson
A. C. Benson
Arthur Christopher Benson was an English essayist, poet, and author and the 28th Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge....
. Although never published in Elgar's lifetime, the Concert Allegro was given the opus number 46.