I just listened to this for the second time.  Just to make sure.  I am
convinced it is Elgar's worst piece.  It is absolutely pathetic.  To be
fair to Ed, the libretto is truly awful - Crown the King is particularly
useless, Crown the King with Life? What is that supposed to mean? I suspect
it means 'Long live the King' but that is probably a much better way to say
it.  But is doesn't stop there:  no, we have 'C the K with Peace/Might/...'
And stopping in the middle of the last verse just to work in P & C number
1...  What is that about? It sounds ridiculous.  Britain ask of thyself
seems to be Elgar's answer to the 1812 overture (you may remember my
feelings with regard to that little number).  Big and Empty.  The slow
movements ramble on with no interesting harmonic/scoring features etc.
This is particularly true of the penultimate movement which is rather less
interesting than the average hymn.  The whole thing seems to be a vehicle
for the big tune which in the finale is very well handled IMO but that
seems to be the only salvagable thing in the whole 30 minutes of it.  Just
compare it to Spirit of England, which several orders of magnitude a better
piece.

Tell me I am wrong.  I double dare you.

David Stewart
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