Edward Elgar

Concert Allegro (Elgar)

The Concert Allegro, Op. 46 by Sir Edward Elgar is a piece of music for solo piano. It takes about 10 minutes to perform. It is the only piano work he wrote that was designed for concert performance.

Background of composition#

Elgar was not a great lover of the piano, and he was busy organising the first performance of his oratorio The Dream of Gerontius in Düsseldorf. He wrote the piece reluctantly, only after constant pleading from Davies for a new piece for her repertoire. Elgar consulted Fanny Davies during the writing of the work, and she made a number of suggestions for improvements, signing her notations “Humbly, F.D.”.

Dedication and first performance#

Elgar dedicated the Concert Allegro to Fanny Davies, and she gave the first performance at St James’s Hall, London, on 2 December 1901, at a concert called “Purcell to Elgar”. (This comment has also been attributed to the conductor Hans Richter.) The first performance has been described as “unconvincing and dubious”, and one writer has said Davies “fatally bruised” the work.

Performance history and revisions#

In light of these criticisms of Davies’ playing and of the work itself, Elgar decided to revise it and shorten it by removing some of the repeats. He also toyed with the idea of converting it into a piano concerto The music critic of The Times in 1942 claimed to have seen a rough copy of the score. Some time before 1942, the composer and conductor Anthony Bernard was asked to arrange the piece for piano and orchestra, but decided against doing so. It has also been arranged as a piece for piano and orchestra by Iain Farrington.

Opus number#

There is some confusion about the opus number for the Concert Allegro. It appears in reference sources as either “Op. 41” or “Op. 46”. Elgar wrote “Op. 41” on the autograph score. At that time he was reserving Op. 46 for a concert overture to be called Falstaff. This work did not see the light of day in that form but became the symphonic study Falstaff in 1913. However, that work was published as Op. 68. In the meantime, he allocated Op. 41 to two songs to words by A. C. Benson. Although never published in Elgar’s lifetime, the Concert Allegro was given the opus number 46.

Composer: Edward Elgar