# Elgar and Mahler similarites



## golfer72 (Jan 27, 2018)

Been listening to a lot of Mahler lately. Hadnt listened to Elgar in quite some time. I did the Elgar First Sym last night. What struck me was the many similarities to Mahler. The march like rhythms, the slow build up to crescendos, the use of horns and woodwinds, the open textures and polyphony etc. Interested in others thoughts.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

Sometimes you will see Elgar referred to as "the English Mahler". Both made extraordinary use of orchestral color. Elgar's symphonies, while seemingly traditional in form are actually rather rhapsodic like Mahler's. Some people complain that the Elgar symphonies are too long but they don't hesitate to listen to Mahler. As much as I love the music of Mahler - and it's been an obsession for over 50 years - I personally believe the Elgar 2nd to be greater than any of the Mahler symphonies. Performed well it's an emotional roller coaster and tear jerker. As popular as Mahler is it would seem natural that the Elgar works would fall right into place with conductors and audiences...but that isn't the case. Every time I get to a live performance of either symphony, the audiences are always enthusiastic and excited. The first performance of the First Symphony I was at a lady next to me asked why she had never heard it before and why it wasn't played more often - she was so thrilled by it. The 2nd is something I put in the cd tray regularly - pick any one of some 30 recordings - and it's always a balm to the ears.


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## progmatist (Apr 3, 2021)

They were also contemporaries, living and working around the same time.


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

I came to Elgar relatively late, after a lifetime of Mahler, and the only reason for that tardiness is the lack of exposure to Elgar's music on the continent. He's just virtually unknown here, with no presence at all in the concert halls. Granted, the cello concerto is played regularly, the violin concerto sometimes, and of course the Enigma Variations - but the symphonies? Almost never.
I feel the two symphonies occupy a completely different realm than the rest of Elgar's orchestral music, vastly different even from what made him popular, the P&C marrches, the EV, the stereotypical royalty-approved British empire style. And it's really in these 3 pieces (I'd add the violin concerto to the symphonies because of its vast scope and symphonic structure) that he was at his very best.
So my first encounter with the two Elgar symphonies came as a shock, and there was a long period when I was borderline obsessed with these two works, collecting recordings and playing them over and over again.
I still can't decide which one I love more. The 2nd is probably the "deeper" work (and I tend to agree with mbhaub that it challenges the best of Mahler - though the idioms are so fundamentally different that a comparison is hard, and maybe unfair), but I fell in love with the 1st more, it's such an terrifically effective piece of music with an abundance of gorgeous melodies, so incredibly opulent and rewarding. So given the choice, keep only one, I'd still go for the 1st. I wouldn't want to live without that harp-accompanied melody in the finale, played only once before the reprise of the main theme. Heaven's gate music.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Trying to draw too many comparisons between major composers is somewhat a fool's errand  While I can understand making some analogies between Mahler and Elgar, if I were forced to pick a comparison it would be between Elgar and Suk. It is interesting that one conductor who has programmed many Suk works, the Russian-born Kirill Petrenko, trained in Austria and working with German orchestras, chose the Elgar 2nd for one of his earliest Berlin Phil. guest concerts.


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