≈ 2 hours · With intermission
Repertoire
Symphony No. 3, "White Interment"
Piano Concerto No. 5, "Emperor"
Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36, “Enigma Variations”
Born at Broadheath, Worcestershire, England, June 2, 1857
Died in Worcester, February 23, 1934
The premiere of the Enigma Variations on June 19, 1899 marked the beginning of a new chapter in Elgar’s life. Already in his early forties, and with no reputation to speak of outside of his native England, Elgar was still regarded as “a man who hasn’t appeared yet” (his own words). The Enigma Variations changed that dramatically. Following the June premiere, Elgar slightly revised the score, extended the Finale, and saw the work played again and again to enthusiastic audiences not only in England but on the continent and in America as well. So quickly did Elgar’s fame spread now that he was knighted just five years after its premiere. He dedicated the score “to my friends pictured within.”
The identities of those “friends pictured within” constitute one aspect of the title’s enigma. Following the stately theme are 14 variations, the first and last of which depict Elgar’s wife and his own musical self-portrait, respectively. In between are found idiosyncratic orchestral descriptions of twelve men and women who played important roles in Elgar’s musical and/or social life. Each variation was prefaced with the character’s initials or nickname. Initially Elgar refused to disclose their identities, but later he published a detailed written explanation giving clues.
There is another enigma to the Variations. Elgar never revealed “its ‘dark saying’… through and over the whole set another and larger theme ‘goes’ but is not played.” This unplayed theme, a theme that “never appears,” has mystified the musical world for more than a century. Presumably Elgar’s wife and his friend August Jaeger knew the secret, but they carried it to their graves. Speculation has run to absurd proportions. Late in life the composer gave a clue: the theme was “so well known that it was strange no one had discovered it.” Musicologists tried mapping all kinds of songs and popular melodies onto the Variations, with varying degrees of failure. They tried programmatic and philosophical themes (“another and larger theme”) like intimacy, friendship and sincerity. They suggested maybe it was all a practical joke – that there was no theme at all of any kind. The enigma remains.
THEME (Enigma) – The theme appears immediately and consists of two phrases: the first, plaintive and sorrowful in G minor stated by violins in a gently climbing and falling line; the second, in G major, shared by strings and woodwinds.
VARIATION I – Without change of tempo, we are introduced to Caroline Alice Elgar, the composer’s wife, “one whose life was a romantic and delicate inspiration” in Elgar’s words.
VARIATION II – Hew David Steuart-Powell, a pianist with whom Elgar (as violinist) played chamber music, is humorously travestied as warming up.
VARIATION III – Elgar presents a caricature of actor Richard Baxter Townshend playing an old man in an amateur theatrical.
VARIATION IV – For the first time the full orchestral sonority is heard. William Meath Baker was described by an acquaintance as a “Gloucestershire squire of the old-fashioned type; scholar… a man of abundant energy.”
VARIATION V – Richard Penrose Arnold, son of Matthew Arnold, is portrayed as a man of depth and seriousness of purpose.
VARIATION VI – Miss Isobel Fitton, a violist, was another enthusiastic amateur who played chamber music with Elgar. Appropriately, her instrument is featured here, depicting a woman of romantic charm.
VARIATION VII – This variation shows architect Arthur Troyte Griffith’s clumsy attempts to play the piano and Elgar’s efforts to help him. The final slam suggests the frustration of it all.
VARIATION VIII – Here is depicted the tranquil lifestyle of a gracious lady, Miss Winifred Norbury of Worcester in her eighteenth-century home.
VARIATION IX – In the best-known of the variations, Elgar creates a moving tribute to August Jaeger. The nickname “Nimrod” refers to the biblical hunter, son of Cush (“Jaeger” is German for “hunter”). The soft glow that infuses this music grew out of a “record of a long summer evening talk,” reported Elgar, “when my friend Jaeger grew nobly eloquent – as only he could – on the grandeur of Beethoven, and especially of his slow movements.”
VARIATION X – Dorabella (later Mrs. Richard Powell) was a lady of hesitant conversation and fluttering manner. Elgar spoke of this music as “a dance of fairy-like lightness.”
VARIATION XI – It is traditional to hear in this music the capering of Sinclair’s bulldog Dan as he stumbles down the banks of the River Wye, paddles upstream to find a landing place and finally scrambles out barking.
VARIATION XII – Another amateur musician in Elgar’s circle was Basil G. Nevinson. His instrument, the cello, predictably has a featured role in this variation.
VARIATION XIII – This variation depicts Lady Mary Lygon, who was on a sea voyage to Australia at the time of composition. This gentle seascape includes quotations on the clarinet from Mendelssohn’s Overture Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage.
VARIATION XIV – Here is Elgar himself. The composer’s assertive, self-assured side is seen here (not his more typical reserved side), and the Variations end in exultant tones.
Pinchas Zukerman has long championed Elgar’s Enigma Variations with the NAC Orchestra, from their first performance in 2005, to the Orchestra’s most recent in 2013. Guest orchestras have frequently interpreted the work in Southam Hall, including the Orchestra of the BBC Wales, in 1983, and the Orchestre Métropolitain with Yannick Nézét-Seguin in 2015.
Program notes by Robert Markow
Artists
“A performer of near-superhuman technical prowess” (The New York Times), pianist Marc-André Hamelin is known worldwide for his unrivaled blend of consummate musicianship and brilliant technique in the great works of the established repertoire, as well as for his intrepid exploration of the rarities of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. He regularly performs around the globe with the leading orchestras and conductors of our time, and gives recitals at major concert venues and festivals worldwide.
Highlights of Mr. Hamelin’s 2023–2024 season include a vast variety of repertoire performed with the Philharmonische Hagen, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Recital and chamber music appearances take Mr. Hamelin to Prague, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, Portland Piano International, Cliburn Concerts and Brevard Music Center with Johannes Moser, and across the U.S. with the Takács Quartet. Festival appearances include Tanglewood, Le Festival de Lanaudière, Grand Teton Music Festival, and Schubertiade.
Mr. Hamelin is an exclusive recording artist for Hyperion Records, where his discography spans more than 70 albums. In February 2024, the label released Mr. Hamelin’s second recording of his own works to great critical acclaim.
Mr. Hamelin has composed music throughout his career, with over 30 compositions to his name. The majority of those works—including the Etudes and Toccata on “L’homme armé,” commissioned by the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition—are published by Edition Peters.
Mr. Hamelin makes his home in the Boston area. Born in Montreal, he is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the German Record Critics’ Association, and has received seven JUNO Awards and eleven GRAMMY nominations. Mr. Hamelin is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Québec, and a member of the Royal Society of Canada.
Principal Guest Conductor of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa and Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, John Storgårds has a dual career as a conductor and violin virtuoso and is widely recognized for his creative flair for programming and rousing yet refined performances. As Artistic Director of the Lapland Chamber Orchestra, a title he has held for over 25 years, Storgårds earned global critical acclaim for the ensemble’s adventurous performances and award-winning recordings.
Internationally, Storgårds appears with such orchestras as the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Munich Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France, the Vienna Radio Symphony, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as all of the major Nordic orchestras, including the Helsinki Philharmonic, where he was Chief Conductor from 2008 to 2015. He also regularly returns to the Münchener Kammerorchester, where he was Artistic Partner from 2016 to 2019. Further afield, he appears with the Sydney, Melbourne, Yomiuri Nippon, and NHK symphony orchestras and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic.
Storgårds’s award-winning discography includes not only recordings of works by Schumann, Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn but also rarities by Holmboe and Vask, which feature him as violin soloist. Cycles of the complete symphonies of Sibelius (2014) and Nielsen (2015) with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra were released to critical acclaim by Chandos. November 2019 saw the release of the third and final volume of works by American avant-garde composer George Antheil. Their latest project, recording the late symphonies of Shostakovich, commenced in April 2020 with the release of Symphony No. 11. In 2023, Storgårds and the BBC Philharmonic were nominated for Gramophone magazine’s Orchestra of the Year Award.
Storgårds studied violin with Chaim Taub and conducting with Jorma Panula and Eri Klas. He received the Finnish State Prize for Music in 2002 and the Pro Finlandia Prize in 2012.
Canada’s National Arts Centre (NAC) Orchestra is praised for the passion and clarity of its performances, its visionary learning and engagement programs, and its unwavering support of Canadian creativity. The NAC Orchestra is based in Ottawa, Canada’s national capital, and has grown into one of the country’s most acclaimed and dynamic ensembles since its founding in 1969. Under the leadership of Music Director Alexander Shelley, the NAC Orchestra reflects the fabric and values of Canada, engaging communities from coast to coast to coast through inclusive programming, compelling storytelling, and innovative partnerships.
Since taking the helm in 2015, Shelley has shaped the Orchestra’s artistic vision, building on the legacy of his predecessor, Pinchas Zukerman, who led the ensemble for 16 seasons. Shelley’s influence extends beyond the NAC. He serves as Principal Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the U.K. and Artistic and Music Director of Artis—Naples and the Naples Philharmonic in the U.S. Shelley’s leadership is complemented by Principal Guest Conductor John Storgårds and Principal Youth Conductor Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser. In 2024, the Orchestra marked a new chapter with the appointment of Henry Kennedy as its first-ever Resident Conductor.
The Orchestra has a rich history of partnerships with renowned artists such as James Ehnes, Angela Hewitt, Renée Fleming, Hilary Hahn, Jeremy Dutcher, Jan Lisiecki, Ray Chen and Yeol Eum Son, underscoring its reputation as a destination for world-class talent. As one of the most accessible, inclusive and collaborative orchestras in the world, the NAC Orchestra uses music as a universal language to communicate the deepest of human emotions and connect people through shared experiences.
A hallmark of the NAC Orchestra is its national and international tours. The Orchestra has performed concerts in every Canadian province and territory and earned frequent invitations to perform abroad. These tours spotlight Canadian composers and artists, bringing their voices to stages across North America, the U.K., Europe, and Asia.
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