Tony Duggan posted from the (London) Sunday Times: > >Forget Elgar the Edwardian. Freed from his period he stands revealed >as a great artist and, as DAVID CAIRNS reports, he is now more popular >than ever, both here and around the world I heard the US premier of the Elgar Third in Philadelphia. It was a splendid performance better than the recording, mainly, I think, because Andrew Davis has really grown with the work. Later I went to the Tower down there, one of the big classical Towers in the States. The manager told me that the Third was a leading seller and that Elgar (and Mahler) were huge these days. Interesting. What with the rediscovery of Schreker, Zemlinksy, et al. it seems that many people are desperately looking back for "new" music, having rejected the music of their own age. But the greatest irony of all is their looking back and reaching into the grave of a composer long considered superannuated for what may be the best "new" piece in decades. This will probably offend some. It is not meant to, nor to start an argument. It is just a statement of observation and feeling over which I have no control. Roger Hecht