Elgar

Elgar’s Enigma Variations began not with an orchestral plan but with him improvising at the piano after a day of teaching. When his wife Alice liked the tune, he began altering it to suggest the characters of their friends; those spontaneous musical portraits grew into the work that made his international reputation. More than thirty years later, five piano improvisations recorded straight to wax preserved that same spontaneous side of his musicianship, offering a rare chance to hear the pianist thinking aloud.