The music of Edward Elgar enjoyed immense popularity in Britain for a relatively brief period during the 1900s and 1910s, but by the time of his death in 1934 it was already starting to fall out of favour. The patriotic nature of pieces like the "Pomp and Circumstance Marches" meant that it enjoyed an even briefer revival during the war, but by 1962, when this documentary was made, Elgar was once again an unfashionable composer. He was associated by many people with jingoism and with nostalgia for the glory days of an Empire from which in the early sixties the British were fast retreating.
Even in the sixties, however, there were some who realised that Elgar deserved to be regarded as far more than a cultural hero of the League of Empire Loyalists. Among these were Huw Wheldon, the producer and editor of the BBC's arts programme "Monitor" and a young director named Ken Russell who were together responsible for this film. It was innovative in a number of ways. It was the first time that a British television programme showed one long film about an artistic subject instead of a number of short items. Russell and Weldon eschewed the "talking heads" style of documentary, even though in 1962, less than thirty years after Elgar's death, there would doubtless have been many people still alive who remembered him in his later years. Instead the programme used actors to portray Elgar, his wife Alice and other figures from his life, although there is no spoken dialogue. The only voice we hear is that of Wheldon, who acted as both writer and narrator. (Russell wanted the actors to speak, but was overruled on this point).
Wheldon and Russell were keen to get away from the prevailing view of Elgar as a bombastic, jingoistic composer of cheap music, a second-rater elevated by the British musical establishment to first-rate status out of misguided cultural nationalism. (From one comment on this board I note that this ignorant and prejudiced view is still not quite dead). To do this they concentrated less on the "Pomp and Circumstance" side of his music than on its more emotional, sensitive and pastoral side. Elgar was a complex man, with many different sides to his character, and these are reflected in his works. We therefore hear extracts from the reflective Second Symphony, the autumnal, elegiac Cello Concerto (written as a response to the death of Alice Elgar and the slaughter of the First World War) and the deeply religious "Death of Gerontius". (Russell said that he had a particular empathy with Elgar's music because, like the composer, he was a Catholic) I will not deny that Russell's style of film-making could, at times, be characterised by excessive flamboyance, his Tchaikovsky biopic "The Music Lovers" being a case in point. "Elgar", however, is not a film of that type. Indeed, by comparison with most of his work for the cinema it is remarkably chaste. Its most striking visual feature is Russell's restrained yet beautiful black-and-white photography of the Malvern Hills, something which together with Wheldon's mellifluous commentary gives the film its distinctive character.
"Elgar" was instrumental in launching Ken Russell's career as a director. He had a deep love of Classical music and was to make several more dramatised biographies of composers, Debussy, Delius and Richard Strauss for television and Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Liszt for the cinema. The film was also credited with contributing to a revival of interest in Elgar's music, although another factor was the advocacy of musicians such as Adrian Boult and John Barbirolli who had remained loyal to the composer even when he was out of critical favour. (Barbirolli's legendary recording of the Cello Concerto with Jacqueline du Pre was made three years after this film). In its stylistic innovations, its establishing its director as a major talent and its role in helping to revive interest in a great composer, "Elgar" can be regarded as one of the most influential arts documentaries ever made. 9/10
Even in the sixties, however, there were some who realised that Elgar deserved to be regarded as far more than a cultural hero of the League of Empire Loyalists. Among these were Huw Wheldon, the producer and editor of the BBC's arts programme "Monitor" and a young director named Ken Russell who were together responsible for this film. It was innovative in a number of ways. It was the first time that a British television programme showed one long film about an artistic subject instead of a number of short items. Russell and Weldon eschewed the "talking heads" style of documentary, even though in 1962, less than thirty years after Elgar's death, there would doubtless have been many people still alive who remembered him in his later years. Instead the programme used actors to portray Elgar, his wife Alice and other figures from his life, although there is no spoken dialogue. The only voice we hear is that of Wheldon, who acted as both writer and narrator. (Russell wanted the actors to speak, but was overruled on this point).
Wheldon and Russell were keen to get away from the prevailing view of Elgar as a bombastic, jingoistic composer of cheap music, a second-rater elevated by the British musical establishment to first-rate status out of misguided cultural nationalism. (From one comment on this board I note that this ignorant and prejudiced view is still not quite dead). To do this they concentrated less on the "Pomp and Circumstance" side of his music than on its more emotional, sensitive and pastoral side. Elgar was a complex man, with many different sides to his character, and these are reflected in his works. We therefore hear extracts from the reflective Second Symphony, the autumnal, elegiac Cello Concerto (written as a response to the death of Alice Elgar and the slaughter of the First World War) and the deeply religious "Death of Gerontius". (Russell said that he had a particular empathy with Elgar's music because, like the composer, he was a Catholic) I will not deny that Russell's style of film-making could, at times, be characterised by excessive flamboyance, his Tchaikovsky biopic "The Music Lovers" being a case in point. "Elgar", however, is not a film of that type. Indeed, by comparison with most of his work for the cinema it is remarkably chaste. Its most striking visual feature is Russell's restrained yet beautiful black-and-white photography of the Malvern Hills, something which together with Wheldon's mellifluous commentary gives the film its distinctive character.
"Elgar" was instrumental in launching Ken Russell's career as a director. He had a deep love of Classical music and was to make several more dramatised biographies of composers, Debussy, Delius and Richard Strauss for television and Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Liszt for the cinema. The film was also credited with contributing to a revival of interest in Elgar's music, although another factor was the advocacy of musicians such as Adrian Boult and John Barbirolli who had remained loyal to the composer even when he was out of critical favour. (Barbirolli's legendary recording of the Cello Concerto with Jacqueline du Pre was made three years after this film). In its stylistic innovations, its establishing its director as a major talent and its role in helping to revive interest in a great composer, "Elgar" can be regarded as one of the most influential arts documentaries ever made. 9/10
