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Elgar's sixth Pomp & Circumstance at BBC Proms

(October 2006)

Elgar's sixth Pomp & Circumstance at BBC Proms

Edward Elgar’s Pomp & Circumstance March No.6 received its belated world premiere at the BBC Proms on 2 August, arranged from the composer’s sketches and orchestrated by Anthony Payne, following up his successful realisation of the sketches for Symphony No.3. Andrew Davis conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the premiere performance, and a recording for Chandos is planned, to be conducted by Richard Hickox. A brass band version of the new march is currently in preparation.

Elgar had always intended to compose a final march to complete his set of six, but at his death in 1934 only sketches were found, with the musical material probably dating from the early 1930s. Most of the manuscripts had been lodged at the British Library but it was the rediscovery of three more pages at the Royal College of Music, clearly in Elgar’s hand and marked P&C 6, that provided Anthony Payne with the impetus to complete the arrangement at the request of the Elgar family.

Elgar’s music for the sixth march, as revealed by Payne, is very different in tone to the confident ebullience and swagger of the first. There is a distinctly valedictory feel to the quick-march section alternating with a trio that is marked nobilmente but is wistful in melodic character. This makes the piece closer in mood to sections of Symphony No.3, sketched in the same period, when ‘pomp and circumstance’ was clearly viewed from a different perspective.

“It is astonishing how convincingly Payne gets inside the Elgar sound. The little subversions - the way he second-guesses how Elgar might have striven to spice up his musical language - make the results here even more intriguing. There are the familiar fingerprints, not least the skirling horns and piccolo, but the shifting metre lends uncertainty and the use of sleigh-bells, a throw-back to his Cockaigne Overture, reminds us just how far we have journeyed. Sir Andrew Davis and the BBC Symphony Orchestra delivered a ripping performance.”
The Independent

Photo: thematic material designated for Pomp & Circumstance March No.6

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