It is sad that so much really
worthwhile music from the past is rarely, or never played. I recently
rejoiced in my discovery of Jean-Philippe Rameau's music, but I
suspect one could attend concerts for years on end even in highly
musical countries such as Germany or France without encountering
performances of Edward Elgar's Piano Quintet. I first
encountered the work many years ago at a concert in Boxgrove Priory
accompanied by three of my four sisters, and I immediately fell in
love with it. Composed in 1918-19 after the devastation in Europe of
the first world war, the quintet is suffused with an aching nostalgia
for a world that had disappeared (Elgar's world, since he was in his
early sixties when he composed it). I listened to it again today in a
2010 recording by Piers Lane and the Goldner String Quartet. Maybe
the finale is not quite up to the standard of the first two movements
but, then, finales rarely are. Elgar's piano quintet is a wonderful
work from 100 years ago and it will always be on my “play it again”
list.
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