Anne Ozorio wrote:
>... Of course it's not new that Elgar wasn't what his image might
>be. What Oramo is discussing is why people in general percieve
>Elgar negatively. There must be thousands all over the world who
>may not know as much as the clever few, but who are nonetheless
>musically astute, but how to make them aware in the first place?
>For example, Elgar's music was appreciated in Germany and Austria
>when it was new. Richard Strauss called him "a progressive". So
>why isn't he performed more often there more often now? ....
A major reason why the Germans do not, on the whole, much appreciate
Elgar (who was not very much appreciated anywhere in the 20s & 30s during
the period of Neue Sachlichkeit etc), is because of the post-war turn
towards assigning kudos to the 2nd Viennese school & its perceived musical
consequences, this being very much pushed by Adorno, who dismissed
Sibelius in a contemptuous article that rendered the latter's music non
grata for quite some time, while he didn't even bother to waste his
vituperation on Elgar, of whom he merely famously said "One gathers that
the English even like Elgar", or words to that effect. Adorno also
dissed Stravinsky, whose star was not very bright in Germany for a long
time too, apart from the early ballets. The Oper Frankfurt has put on
3 productions of *The Rake's Progress* in the last 35 years, I believe;
it played to half empty houses whenever I saw it, while *Lulu*, say, was
sold out. Richard Strauss also had a bad name, but he wrote luscious
operas & the public for opera ignores aesthetic correctness in such
cases. This is a very crude version of what went on in postwar Germany,
but I think it is not mistaken.
Martin
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