Edward Elgar Enigma Variations
Fourteen musical portraits of friends and an enigma that remains unsolved.
About the video
- Filmed 31 March 2022.
- The video is approximately 33 minutes.
Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations were an immediate success at their premiere in London in 1899. A quiet theme is followed by fourteen variations, each portraying someone in the composer’s circle of friends. Among them are his wife Alice, friends and fellow musicians – and even an episode involving a dog that falls into the River Wye and swims ashore.
The most famous is the ninth variation, Nimrod, a warm and majestic portrait of Elgar’s close friend August Jaeger. The final variation, in turn, is a self-portrait, in which the music builds to a splendid finale that draws the work together.
But the title Enigma refers to something more. Elgar claimed that another theme runs through the entire work without ever actually being played. He never revealed what he meant, and countless attempts have been made to solve the mystery. The enigma remains, and has become part of the work’s enduring fascination.
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The music
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Edward Elgar Enigma Variations
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Participants
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Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
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Ryan Bancroft conductor
