Mats writes:

>I don't know actually, but I doubt that any major Purcells work was
>played even once in Paris in his lifetime.

I doubt whether any major Lully was played in London, at least not
until the late twentieth century, by which time Purcell was very well
established in France.  That doesn't mean that composers both sides of
the channel didn't avidly read the latest work from the opposition - they
sure did!  That's why Handel got away with so much creative cribbing from
his continental contemporaries - his public simply didn't know their new
Hasse or Telemann.

In any case, Elgar was not the first English composer to make a splash in
19th century Europe.  Take two: Sterndale Bennett was adored in Germany
as a young tyro, and Arthur Sullivan's huge early fame stemmed from the hit
he made with his symphonic suite on "The Tempest", written and premiered in
Leipzig.

If I recall rightly, the stupid "Land ohne Musik" jibe came from one
of the few German conductors who *didn't* get a job in London, the city
flowing with financial milk and honey.  It was pure sour grapes.  London's
musical life was as rich as any capital in Europe's: it's just that, then
as now, we English were self-deprecating enough to laud foreign exotics
above our equally lovely home-bred blooms.  Alas, even on today's 50th
Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, this still remains true.  (No Bax again
at this year's Proms, can you believe?)

Christopher Webber,  Blackheath, London,  UK.
http://www.nashwan.demon.co.uk/zarzuela.htm
"ZARZUELA!"