Various video clips are available online that will be of interest to Elgarians. These may be accessed via our Video Link page. The latest features Sir Adrian Boult.

A three day festival of lectures and performances will takes place at St. Edward's School, Woodstock Road, Oxford, from Friday 15 October to Sunday 17 October. It is the brainchild of a Lower Sixth student, and includes lectures by Paul Harper-Scott and Anthony Payne. Full details may be obtained from the school's Director of Music, Alex Tester, telephone 01865 319217.

The composer David Matthew has arrange the String Quartet for string orchestra. The arrangement had been commissioned by the Presteigne Festival with funds from the Elgar Society, and will receive its world premiere on Thursday 26 August, conducted by George Vass, at the opening concert of this year's Festival. Full details of the concert are available on our diary pages.

Volume 19, The Starlight Express, is now available. Click here for details.

An Elgarian from Australia draws our attention to "A recent French film, Mademoiselle Chambon (dir. Stéphane Brizé, 2009) which gives a prominent place to Elgar and his music.

"With his noble bearing, stiff upper lip and imperial moustache, the composer of Land of Hope and Glory is often seen as the epitome of Edwardian England. But this image was deliberately contrived, and far from reality."

"In this revelatory portrait of a musical genius, John Bridcut explores the secret conflicts in Elgar's heart which produced some of Britain's greatest music."

To view the trailer, click here.

Following the death of journalist and Elgar enthusiast John Ballantine, it has been announced that the Elgar Society has been named as a beneficiary under the terms of Mr Ballantine’s will.

Amounting to £30,000, the Ballantine Bequest is the second substantial legacy left to the society in recent years, the first having been used to sponsor specific performances of rarely-heard Elgar works under the society’s ‘Elgar in Performance’ initiative. ‘Whilst we depend on members’ subscriptions to run the society’s operations on a day-to-day basis, larger bequests such as these provide the basis for significant projects which are of benefit to the wider cultural community,’ says Elgar Society Chairman Steven Halls. ‘We extend our thanks to Mr Ballantine’s estate for this generous gesture.’

A former staff sportswriter on The Times and The Sunday Times, John Ballantine (1923-2009) was a long-standing member of the West Midlands branch of the Elgar Society. ‘John had an intense love of England and towards the end of his life was described by one of his friends as a true Edwardian gentleman,’ said branch secretary Richard Smith in a tribute to Mr Ballantine. ‘His musical appreciation was wide-ranging, but his main love was Elgar, again reflecting his intense affection for his country. John was able to charm and befriend those around him and extend his love of life to brighten their lives.’

Representatives of the Elgar Society attended John Ballantine’s funeral, which was held in his adopted home town of Stratford-upon-Avon.

There is now a German society devoted to the life and music of Sir Arthur Sullivan

For details , click here

A new recording of The Fringes of the Fleet is now available from SOMM Records (SOMMCD243). The principal baritone is Roderick Williams, and the Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra in conducted by Tom Higgins. The other Elgar items on the CD are Inside the Bar, Big Steamers, and the Elegy.

The latest CD on the Elgar Editions label contains the Karg-Elert transcription of Falstaff, a manuscript lost for many years in the bowels of the British Library until rediscovered by David Owen Norris. The CD also includes David's own transcriptions of the first five Pomp and Circumstance Marches, and Elgar's fullest draft of his sixth Pomp and Circumstance March, only discovered in June 2007 after the Payne realisation had received its premiere.

The CD can be ordered from the Elgar Birthplace Museum Shop, which can be accessed here.

Richard Winter-Stanbridge, Chairman of Shene Gate Pictures, has provided the following update on the production of GIGANTIC WORX: The Dream of Elgar, "the first Elgar Bio-pic in over forty years".

"There is now a Facebook support group where you can follow news updates in the making of the film and offer your comments and suggestions. Also, you can link to the film's web site and if so inclined make a donation through our Fiscal Sponsor The American Elgar Foundation using PayPal. You need not become a member of Facebook, but you can still join our support group on this network platform. It's a great place for you to tell us what you'd like to see and hear in a contemporary documentary film about Sir Edward Elgar. You can also join in the discussion topics, or even start one yourself! Simply sign in at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=145581500265&ref=mf.

"Production is moving along slowly but surely. Unfortunately, funding has been slow to achieve, due to the recession, but we are persevering and hope to film our next segment, a round table debate with great Elgarians, hopefully in February 2010. We really want to encourage Elgar Society members to support this independent venture as much as they can. After all, it isn't every day someone comes along wanting to make a film on the subject of Sir Edward Elgar, as wonderful as he and his music is!"

World premiere recordings of Elgar's three unfinished movements for piano trio, completed by Paul Adrian Rooke and recorded by Dutton, are now available. The CD also contains the Bridge Piano Quartet and Adele Maddison's Piano Quintet, again in world premier recordings. The full score of the Elgar trio movements, published by Elgar Works, is also available, complete with separate violin and 'cello parts.

The CD and score can be ordered from the Elgar Birthplace Museum Shop, which can be accessed here.

The firm of printers and music publishers in Munich, Musikproduktion Juergen Hoeflich (www.musikmph.de), specialise in producing very fine quality study scores (about 9" x 6.5") of music that isn't available in print elsewhere.  For instance, their catalogue includes much orchestral music by Raff, Rubenstein, Rudi Stephan, Svendsen, Schmidt, Chadwick, Magnard, Suk, Novak and Bruch, as well as Parry, Stanford, Hurlstone, Holst, Grainger and others.

Each volume has an introduction in English and German, giving the background and context of each work, and contains details of where to obtain performance material.  This is the real purpose of this series - to encourage performances.  The publishers have subscribers all over the world.

MPH have just published Parry's music to The Birds, several pieces by Josef Strauss, and two volumes of the complete orchestral and chamber music of George Butterworth, much of which has been newly typeset.  More importantly for the Elgar Society, they have just brought out Elgar's Falstaff, with the composer's own analytical note, plus a volume of all four string pieces (Serenade, Intro & Allegro, Elegy and Sospiri).  They have the Three Bavarian Dances in print as well.

In the coming months, they will publish study scores of The Coronation Ode, Coronation March and God Save the King, From the Bavarian Highlands (with orchestra), The Banner of St George, and several short works (inc. Sevillana, Spanish Serenade and the Three pieces Opus 10), the P & C Marches (with the Imperial March), the Crown of India, Polonia and all the concertante works (inc. the Romance for Bassoon).

Full details of The Elgar Education Programme may be seen by clicking here.

The Elgar Society has agreed a sponsorship deal with the British Schools Cycling Association which marks a new and exciting venture for the Society by linking up with a non-musical organisation.

As part of the Society’s remit to engage with young people, it was felt that the society could tap into the fact that Elgar was a very keen cyclist all his life and composed some of his greatest music while out riding his bicycle over the Malvern hills.

Lucy Chittenden (14yrs) a member of the Farnborough & Camberley Cycling Club and who also rides for British Schools Cycling was presented with £1000 at the Porsche Centre Guildford who kindly hosted the presentation. Lucy said "From what I know of Elgar he was quite an amazing guy and I am quite impressed that he rode a bike". Lucy went to say "This sponsorship was really kind of the Elgar Education Programme and hopefully this will encourage more young people to get active and like Elgar better themselves". Lucy has aspirations to compete for Great Britain in the 2012 Olympics in the Triathlon.

Mr. Ron Dowling, representing the British Schools Cycling Association said that "this sponsorship deal between us and the Elgar Society was a great opportunity for holding an Inter-County Schools Team Competition on a closed circuit. This type of event would be a first for us and without this generous sponsorship it would not be possible for it to happen. The South of England would be hosting the first event in summer 2006".

The Elgar Society would like to encourage - by giving financial assistance - performances of Elgar's works that are rarely performed and to encourage performances of any of his works in areas where his music is rarely heard. In particular, the Society would be delighted to encourage with such assistance performances which otherwise would not take place.

Full details of the scheme, and an application form for financial assistance, are available elsewhere on this website.

The Elgar Birthplace Museum now has its own website. This can be accessed at www.elgarmuseum.org

This exciting new site is now live, and all pages on the Elgar Society site referring to the Birthplace have been redirected.