Sir Edward Elgar's Symphony No. 2 in E♭ major, Op. 63, was completed on 28 February 1911 and was premiered at the London Musical Festival at Queen’s Hall by the Queen's Hall Symphony Orchestra on 24 May 1911 with the composer conducting. The symphony, which Elgar called "the passionate pilgrimage of the soul" , would be his last; the composition of his Third Symphony, begun in 1933, was cut short by his death in 1934.
The dedication reads:
The mo...
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Sir Edward Elgar's Symphony No. 2 in E♭ major, Op. 63, was completed on 28 February 1911 and was premiered at the London Musical Festival at Queen’s Hall by the Queen's Hall Symphony Orchestra on 24 May 1911 with the composer conducting. The symphony, which Elgar called "the passionate pilgrimage of the soul" , would be his last; the composition of his Third Symphony, begun in 1933, was cut short by his death in 1934.
The dedication reads:
The more personal nature of this work, however, is clear in a letter to friend and close correspondent Alice Stuart-Wortley, in which Elgar states:
These remarks, recounted by Elgar's friend Charles Sanford Terry, shed light on Elgar's creative process. Some sketches of the Symphony No. 2 date back to 1903, a letter from October of that year indicating an idea for a symphony in E flat to be dedicated to friend and conductor Hans Richter. The symphony was set aside during the composition of In the South, the First Symphony, and the Violin Concerto....
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