Program Notes: Elgar’s Enigma Variations

SoundWaves with The Florida Orchestra

The power of friendship. Edward Elgar’s most popular work, Enigma Variations, was dedicated to 14 friends portrayed in the pieces – from his wife to an Oxford professor, a bulldog and even Elgar himself. Like the Elgar, each section of Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin (The Grave of Couperin) is dedicated to someone the composer knew, but this time they are friends who died on the battlefield. The music is far from gloomy. The composer once said, “the dead are sad enough, in their eternal silence.’’ In Brahms Double Concerto, the violin and cello are partners in a conversation with the orchestra, ending with a spirited rondo that harkens back to the composer’s own Hungarian Dances.
These program notes include music excerpts.
Masterworks 12 of the 23/24 Season
Performances May 17-19, 2024