Glad to see that Ken Russell's "Elgar" will be shown on BBC 4, at 7.05pm, Saturday 2 June.   Wishful thinking, perhaps, but it would be good to know that Russell's other work in the MONITOR series; "Song of Summer" (Delius), Debussy and Richard Strauss, would also be given another airing in the run up to The Proms.   Huw Wheldon was always around to curb the directorial excesses.   A good opportunity, too, for a younger generation to take a look at the creativity in the 1960's.

Radio 3 is offering a substantial coverage of Elgar's work, starting with Performance on 3, 7pm on 1st June,  and seeing the name of Andrew Davis, conducting the Philharmonia, reminded me of visits to the Royal Festival Hall, autumn 1981, when he also conducted the same orchestra in an Elgarian repertoire.    A Pomp & Circumstance march always followed as an encore.

Thanks from me also Stanley - must get the video working - do you remember ever seeing Russell's films on Bax and Martinu - not classics like the Elgar and Delius but nevertheless interesting - i always think with Russell you never really know what to expect !!!

Is anyone jumping up and down at the Arts Council's decision not to give money to an Elgar festival, as reported in the Sunday Telegraph today? At the end of the story it did concede that the correct procedures in applying for money had not been followed, something that the headlines don't reflect. But then one wonders whether the rules could have been bent if the Council had been keen enough. I personally think that Elgar gets sufficient promotion and has enough champions already. I'm not bothered by the fact that he's disappeared from the £20 notes, having had a good run for his "money" there.

I've got the chance to play bass clarinet in a performance of The Kingdom and I don't know whether to take it up. I don't know the work but people I know who have attended rehearsals already say they find it overlong and the music not particularly distinguished. Perhaps Elgar enthusiasts here can convince me.

 # 2       Thanks, offbeat.       I've gradually been sifting my unwieldy video collection, started in the early 80's, with the aim of transferring selected items to DVD with a consequent improvement in a sharper picture and sound.    Fortuitously, the Bax (South Bank Show) and Martinu documentaries are on my search list as I always warmed to Ken Russell's  TV output, before his wide screen forays into Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Liszt, although fascinated by his "Savage Messiah" and "The Devils" in the early 70's.      "An Appalling Talent" is perhaps a fair appraisal.

I hope that serendipity will come to my aid with Bax and Martinu programmes as it did, gradually, with the discovery of the 1969 Snape Maltings "Peter Grimes" off-air video,( in a repeat transmission several years later, of course); the 1971 TV production of "Owen Wingrave" and only yesterday, the 1970 TV broadcast of "Winterreise" with Peter Pears/Benjamin Britten, directed by John Culshaw.   Sadly, these TV landmarks are not commercially available and the possibility of transferring them to DVD is a real bonus, as well as being a voyage of discovery.

The commercial remastering of Russell's "Elgar" and "Song of Sunset" completely vindicates the digital processing and I hope that the BEEB may yet look to the other composers in the MONITOR series.   I still have vivid memories of the Debussy and Richard Strauss programmes.

I've sung in The Kingdom (with Vernon Handley) and found it tedious in the extreme. It astonished me that the man who composed The Dream of Gerontius, a great work full of wonderful music, could have come up with something so forgettable. Handley tried to defend it, I remember, but there were few who were convinced, even by him.

t-p, I know that he hasn't been played very much in other countries or even, as you say, here (except for certain pieces that everyone knows). Perhaps he doesn't export well. When I sang in The Dream of Gerontius in Germany about ten or fifteen (?) years ago, hardly anyone had heard of it, but they enjoyed it very much. I'm not really an Elgar fan, but I love Gerontius.

marbleflugel, You are making interesting point. I like to inversigate this. Was Elgar religious man or was he an agnostic?
When I first heard Elgar name I was very suspicious. I am prejudice like everybody else. My friend from the same country like me was also suspicious. We thought that he was sentimental out of date composer or may be British only. I went with this opinion for a while until I strarted to play and hear his various chamber pieces.
Now people tell me they play him in my former country that I think is very good. He is a good link between 19th century and 20 th century British (and world) music.
 

The development section of the 1st symphony (1st mvt)is ferocious rythmically but you can get a handle on it,similarly the chromatic quality in the 2nd. For me the genius of the man is to wrap complex ideas in a lyrical framework, and he
deeply figured out the psychology of being English (which itself has cross-cultural connects of course). Yes, t-p
I think he was agnostic. In rural England -as happily in Russia and IrelandI believe?-pagan rituals subtly continue
and of course underpin Christian rituals. Michael Kennedy's biography is a good souce I believe, but so are Ken's films-as I say, he seems to have made an Elgarian journey in more recent times.