Dedicated to "my friends pictured within", Elgar's orchestral showpiece started life as a simple improvisation at the piano after a day of teaching violin in October of 1898. Upon playing the theme, his wife Alice asked that he repeat it. This led him to improvise variations on the melody - each variation a musical portrait of one of their friends. Elgar ultimately expanded this into a full-length compositon, including music portraits of Alice and himself before orchestrating it. The premiere was given on June 19, 1899 in London's St. James's Hall under the baton of Hans Richter. The work was popular immediately and has been part of the orchestral canon ever since. This new score is a digitally-restored reissue of the one first published in 1899 by Novello. In contrast to so many of the on-demand scores now available, this one comes with all the pages and the images have been thoroughly checked to make sure it is actually readable.
