Elgar’s epic Violin Concerto was composed for celebrated Viennese virtuoso Fritz Kreisler, who shortly before giving the 1910 world première in London vowed ‘I will shake the Queen’s Hall!’ He obviously had the desired effect as according to one reviewer, ‘for a quarter of an hour they called and recalled the man [Elgar] who had achieved a triumph not only for himself, but also for England, and hailed him as master and hero.’ Elgar’s own opinion was that ‘It’s good! Awfully emotional! Too emotional...but I love it.’ The score’s enigmatic Spanish inscription is now thought to refer to Alice Stuart-Wortley, whom Elgar referred to affectionately as his ‘windflower’.
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More concerts at Royal Festival Hall
Sir Andrew Davis conducts in London
May 22 2013, 19:30 - Royal Festival Hall
Celebrating the 200th Anniversary of Wagner's birth, Sir Andrew Davis conducts excerpts from Wagner's Tannhäuser and Die Walküre
Salonen conducts in London
May 30 2013, 19:30 - Royal Festival Hall
Esa-Pekka conducts The Rite of Spring in its centenary performance alongside Debussy's Prelude à l'après-midi d'un faune and Varèse's Amériques










