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Sir Edward Elgar's Symphony No. 1 in A-flat major, Op. 55 is one of his two completed symphonies. The first performance was given by the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Hans Richter in Manchester, England, on 3 December 1908. It was widely known that Elgar had been planning a symphony for more than ten years, and the announcement that he had finally completed it aroused enormous interest. The critical reception was enthusiastic, and the public response unprecedented. The symphony achieved what ''The Musical Times'' described as "immediate and phenomenal success", with a hundred performances in Britain, continental Europe and America within just over a year of its première. The symphony is regularly programmed by British orchestras, and features occasionally in concert programmes in North America and Europe. It is well represented on record, with recordings ranging from the composer's 1931 version with the London Symphony Orchestra to modern digital recordings, of which more than 20 have been issued since the mid-1980s. ==Composition and première== Nearly ten years before composing the Symphony No 1, Elgar had been intrigued by the idea of writing a symphony to commemorate General Charles George Gordon rather as Beethoven's Eroica was originally intended to celebrate Napoleon Bonaparte.〔Reed p. 96〕 In 1899 he wrote to his friend A. J. Jaeger (the "Nimrod" of the Enigma Variations), "Now as to Gordon: the thing possesses me, but I can't write it down yet."〔 After he completed his oratorio ''The Kingdom'' in 1906 Elgar had a brief fallow period. As he passed his fiftieth birthday he turned to his boyhood compositions which he reshaped into ''The Wand of Youth'' suites during the summer of 1907.〔 He began work on a symphony and when he went to Rome for the winter〔"Court Circular", ''The Times'', 6 November 1907, p. 12〕 he continued work on it, finishing the first movement. After his return to England he worked on the rest of the symphony during the summer of 1908.〔Kennedy, p. 53〕 Elgar had abandoned the idea of a "Gordon" symphony, in favour of a wholly unprogrammatic work. He had come to consider abstract music as the pinnacle of orchestral composition. In 1905 he gave a lecture on the Third Symphony of Brahms, in which he said that when music was simply a description of something else it was carrying a large art somewhat further than he cared for. He thought music, as a simple art, was at its best when it was simple, without description, as in the case of the Brahms symphony.〔"Brahms's Third Symphony – Sir E. Elgar's Analysis, ''The Manchester Guardian'', 9 November 1905, p. 8〕 The first page of the manuscript carries the title, "Symphony for Full Orchestra, Op. 55."〔Reed, p. 97〕 To the music critic Ernest Newman he wrote that the new symphony was nothing to do with Gordon, and to the composer Walford Davies he wrote, "There is no programme beyond a wide experience of human life with a great charity (love) and a massive hope in the future."〔 The symphony was dedicated "To Hans Richter, Mus. Doc. True Artist and true Friend."〔 It was premiered on 3 December 1908 in the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, with Richter conducting the Hallé Orchestra. The London première followed four days later, at the Queen's Hall, with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Richter.〔 At the first rehearsal for the London concert, Richter addressed the orchestra, "Gentlemen, let us now rehearse the greatest symphony of modern times, written by the greatest modern composer – ''and not only in this country''." W H Reed, who played in the LSO at that concert, recalled, "Arriving at the ''Adagio'', () spoke almost with the sound of tears in his voice and said: 'Ah! this is a real Adagio – such an Adagio as Beethove' would 'ave writ'."〔 ''The Musical Times'' wrote in 1909, "To state that Elgar's Symphony has achieved immediate and phenomenal success is the bare truth." Within weeks of the première the symphony was performed in New York under Walter Damrosch, Vienna under Ferdinand Löwe, St. Petersburg under Alexander Siloti, and Leipzig under Artur Nikisch. There were performances in Chicago, Boston, Toronto and 15 British towns and cities.〔The Musical Times, 1 February 1909, p. 102〕 By February 1909 the New York Philharmonic Orchestra had given two more performances at Carnegie Hall and had taken the work to "some of the largest inland cities ... It is doubtful whether any symphonic work has aroused so great an interest since Tchaikowsky's ''Pathétique''."〔"Opera in New York – Our Own Correspondent", ''The Observer'', 14 February 1909, p. 5〕 In the same period the work was played six times in London, under the baton of Richter, the composer, and Henry Wood.〔 Within just over a year there were a hundred performances worldwide.〔Jack, Adrian. ("Edward Elgar, Symphony No 1". ) BBC Radio 3. Retrieved 7 April 2010.〕 ''The Musical Times'' printed a digest of press comments on the symphony. ''The Daily Telegraph'' was quoted as saying, "()hematic beauty is abundant. It is exquisite in the adagio, and in the first and second allegros, the latter a kind of scherzo; when the rhythmic impulse, the power and the passion are at their extreme height, when the music becomes almost frenzied in its superb energy, the sense of sheer beauty is still strong." ''The Morning Post'', wrote, "This is a work for the future, and will stand as a legacy for coming generations; in it are the loftiness and nobility that indicate a masterpiece, though its full appreciation will only be from the most serious-minded; to-day we recognise it as a possession of which to be proud." ''The Evening Standard said, ''Here we have the true Elgar – strong, tender, simple, with a simplicity bred of inevitable expression. ... The composer has written a work of rare beauty, sensibility, and humanity, a work understandable of all."〔All extracts in this paragraph are from the digest in ''The Musical Times'', 1 January 1909, pp. 153–54〕 ''The Musical Times'' refrained from quoting ''The Observer'', which was the only dissenting voice among the main newspapers. It complained that the work was derivative of Mendelssohn, Brahms and Wagner, and thought the theme of the slow movement "cheap ready-made material". It allowed, however, that "Elgar's orchestration is so magnificently modern that the dress disguises the skeleton."〔"Music: The Elgar Symphony", ''The Observer'', 13 December 1908, p. 9〕 This adverse view was in contrast with the praise in ''The Times'': "() great work of art, which is lofty in conception and sincere in expression, and which must stand as a landmark in the development of the younger school of English music." In ''The Manchester Guardian'', Samuel Langford described the work as "sublime ... the work is the noblest ever penned for instruments by an English composer."〔Langford, Samuel, ''The Manchester Guardian'', 3 December 1908, p. 5; and 4 December 1908, p. 9.〕 ''The Times'' noted the influence of Wagner and Brahms: "There are characteristic reminiscences of ''Parsifal''... and rhythmically the chief theme looks like an offspring of Brahms" but concluded "it is not only an original work, but one of the most original and most important that has been added to the stock of recent music."〔"The Queen's-Hall Orchestra", ''The Times'', 2 January 1909, p. 11〕 ''The New York Times'', which also detected the influence of ''Parsifal'', and, in the finale, of Verdi's ''Aida'', called the symphony "a work of such importance that conductors will not lightly let it drop."〔("Elgar's Symphony – First Time Here". ) ''The New York Times'', 4 January 1909, p. 9〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Symphony No. 1 (Elgar)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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