Elgar, Edward: Road to Recognition: Diaries 1897–1901

Provincial Musician, the first volume of Elgar diaries published in August 2013, covered the years up to 1896, years in which Elgar was gradually establishing a reputation as a competent but essentially provincial composer. This, the second volume of family diaries, takes us through the years in which Elgar emerged as a composer of national, though not yet international, status. These were of course the years of many of Elgar’s signature works – The Banner of St George, Caractacus, Sea Pictures, the ‘Enigma’ Variations, Gerontius, Cockaigne and the first two Pomp and Circumstance Marches, and we can follow the development of these works, and the progress of others, as recorded through Elgar’s eyes and, more particularly if less impartially, those of his wife Alice.

But the volume sets this in a significantly wider context: firstly the routine of daily life with its highs and lows, all recorded in the diary in somewhat cryptic detail – an Elgar-English dictionary and editorial commentary are provided to aid comprehension; and secondly the growing public recognition of the rising of a star, captured in newspaper reviews and illuminated by correspondence with the family’s friends, relatives and business acquaintances. Again drawing on a wealth of contemporary sources, the volume reveals a life scarcely known about until now. As well as being of great interest to Elgarians and lovers of music of the late Victorian age, the book will be of value to anyone interested in the social history of the period.