Richard Pennycuick wrote:

>Does anyone know more about The Wand of Youth?

What you probably are hearing in the Wand of Youth that reminds you
of Tchaikovsky relates to what the eminent music critic Virgil Thomson
argued often about that composer, that Tchaikovsky's music is mainly an
evocation of adolescence.  Since much of the thematic material in The
Wand was composed by Elgar in his youth, perhaps the adolescent angst and
naivete you subconsciously associate with Tchaikovsky is coming through
in the Elgar work.  We have no way of knowing if Elgar as a youth heard
any Tchaikovsky, but he certainly might have been aware of some of the
composer's early waltzes (such as the Haymaker's Dance), popularized by
Johann Strauss, Jr., and played by bands in England in the 1870s.

John Dalmas
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