Bernard Chasan ([log in to unmask]) wrote on Elgar's Third Symphony:

>I agree that the music is wonderful, But the composer of two (now 3)
>great symphonies, Falstaff, Enigma Variations, the Cello and Violin
>Concertos, and the Sea Pictures orchestral song cycle never should have
>been considered to be "superannuated" whatever that word means in this
>context.  And why all this "reaching into the grave" rhetoric? Why does
>this unlovely and uncalled for expression apply to Elgar more than any
>other deceased composer or artist or writer we appreciate?

I think because, for many people, Elgar is viewed as a typical
stiff-upper-lip-send-a-gunboat jingoistic, chauvinistic Englishman of
the Victorian era.  And even some of those who know this to be not even
a remotely accurate picture of the man, still somehow think it to be true
of his music.  Too many choruses of Land of Hope and Glory will do that
to some people I suppose.

I think Roger has a good point, because I cannot think, offhand, of any
other composer whose music has been so damned by association with a
particular aspect of his era.

Deryk Barker
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