# Elgar - similar composers?



## Complicity (Nov 10, 2014)

I'm a big fan of Edward Elgar, but am still finding my feet around other composers. Who would you nominate as having a similar style to Worcester's famous resident, and any other recommendations?


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## sharik (Jan 23, 2013)

Tchaikovsky maybe?


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## Complicity (Nov 10, 2014)

Agree..... I love Swan Lake and The Nutcracker.... Any other pieces you would recommend?


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

For Tchaikovsky, maybe the Piano Concerto No. 1? Or Symphony No. 4.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

I would suggest Dvorak and Brahms had a great influence on Elgar.
Try Dvorak's New World Symphony or Brahm's Violin Concerto and see what you think


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## Complicity (Nov 10, 2014)

Just spend 35 mins listening to Brahm's Violin Concerto - a beautiful piece.... Thank you so much for the recommendation @haydn 
man......


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

You could try Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Complicity said:


> I'm a big fan of Edward Elgar, but am still finding my feet around other composers. Who would you nominate as having a similar style to Worcester's famous resident, and any other recommendations?


Have you heard Elgar's Violin Concerto and the Enigma Variations. After those you may not want to listen to anyone else.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Totally agree with the Dvorak and Tchaikovsky suggestions. Perhaps (Richard) Strauss and Saint-Saens can also be added.


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## Chordalrock (Jan 21, 2014)

Peteris Vasks: Cantus I & II from the Cello Concerto.


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## Chris (Jun 1, 2010)

Charles Villiers Stanford. Some of his symphonies (probably all except no. 7) sound very Brahms.


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## Complicity (Nov 10, 2014)

Yes I have listened to Enigma Variations, Cello Concerto (Alisa Weilerstein) and The Dream of Gerontius (which I also saw the live production by RPO)... All wonderful pieces.....


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I second Mendelssohn, then-the violin concerto, Scottish and Italian Symphonies, Midsummer Night's Dream music.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

Try Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry.


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## Avey (Mar 5, 2013)

With the obligatory caution that these are my opinions, as are all the above posts, to the OP:

I would not point anyone who enjoys *Elgar's *music to *Tchaikovsky*. I am hard-pressed to hear similarities between those two. They are from two different eras, two different musical regimes. Maybe their string serenades share some resemblance, but overall, their whole melodic gestalts are vastly different in scale and direction.

1. Elgar can come off plangent, fervent, overly dramatic -- "vulgar" as some critics in his day called it. Hence, the *Strauss *comps, which are fair, in some respects. Though, honestly, when I first heard _Gerontius_, I never once thought it was Strauss. Though, again, when I first heard _Alassio_, Strauss did come to mind.

2. Elgar's music is not direct; the emotion behind any one climax or any deafening of the orchestra cannot be labeled sorrowful or optimistic. His emblematic longing and wistfulness is never explicit in its aim -- does one feel requited, pacified, or in fact left forlorn? There is triumph and resolve, but also resignation in his finales -- which is it? In this sense, as I have submitted before on this forum, his music is quite biographical. There is a deeply personal, delitescent partiality to his music, and its beauty lies in its esoteric purpose seeping through the superficial sounds and melodies that all too often make critics and listeners categorize him with other late-Romantics adhering to an aging Central European tradition. Don't listen to them.

3. Still, since you asked for suggestions, I should at least say a name. And this will likely upset many here -- dare call it blasphemy -- but I think Elgar's large-scale orchestral works are reminiscent of *Mahler*. This does not mean they sound the same. It does not mean they share technical or structural components. Simply, when I hear Elgar, I hear the same emotional depth and range that Mahler exhibits. Of course, these sentiments come in different capacities, aims, and dynamics, but of the late-Romantics (which is generally why I feel _some_ comfort in recommending Mahler here), these two exemplify the overtly emotional extravagance of life and its struggles set in musical form. Pain, progress, and pleasure.

(Plus, listen to the adagios in Elgar's Second Symphony and Mahler's Sixth.)

4. But really, regardless of everything I just said, Elgar is a unique composer. He should not be tied to English composers because he's English. He should not be tied to late-Romantics because he composed during that era. Like any other composer, he has a sound of his own, which at least I can pick up immediately. And I think that is definitive of a great artist.


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## mtmailey (Oct 21, 2011)

To be honest there are no composers like ELGAR because he was very unique He was one of the few great romantic composers.Like his symphony #3 which was incomplete at his death.The last movement had little done i wonder how it would sound.


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## Complicity (Nov 10, 2014)

Appreciate your thoughts @Avey..... I have not had much experience with Gustav Mahler - only listening to his Symphony Number 5 (which is, incidentally, beautiful). I do think the way you have drawn parallels between them is quite interesting. To close out on this thread, what particular pieces of Mahler would you recommend?


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## michaels (Oct 3, 2014)

I might ask what you most like of Elgar?

Offhand, I'd say take a listen to Mahler's 2nd Symphony.


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