Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This book, prepared by one of the world's premier Elgar scholars, draws from over ten thousand letters to present a comprehensive and compelling picture of Elgar and his times. Moore has selected letters to and from a wide range of acquaintances and friends--family members, great literary and musical figures, those people "pictured" in the Enigma Variations--to provide a fascinating record of over fifty years of a great, creative life.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Moore's monumental life work on Elgar (e.g., Elgar, A Creative Life, CH, Apr'85, and two previous collections of letters, CH, Jun'88, Dec'89) has reached this final, brilliantly edited and annotated volume of letters. It is a fitting conclusion, a fascinating documentation of the deep humanity of a composer who, as Ernest Newman observed, "voiced the best that is in us." Avoiding the specialized coverage of his previous volumes of correspondence, Moore has produced a rich, inspiring collection of letters written by and to Elgar from 1880 to 1934. The 139 correspondents (identified in an appendix) include Newman, Richter, Parry, Strauss, Damrosch, Shaw, and Boult, plus many lesser lights who nevertheless were important friends and/or loyal advocates of Elgar's music. Moore's running commentary linking the letters makes the book a sheer delight to read. Wonderful things are here: a "moral code" ending for Cockaigne (incorporating Mendelssohn's "Wedding March"); a blast at unions in US orchestras, which "do not and cannot improve under that system--and we had hopes of that land!"; and a mock plan for a cantata celebrating the repentance of unintelligent smokers! And there is much generosity of spirit, in Robin Legge's words "the personification of sympathy" and the "simplicity of real greatness." Absolutely essential for all libraries interested in Elgar. -W. Metcalfe, University of Vermont