Victorian enigma
Sir: Benny Green (September 28) might have added, in pursuit of his hypothesis, that Sir Edward Elgar was born in 1857.
Victorian England's strident self-confidence was rather brittle, a public phenomenon built upon mounting piles of material wealth and swelling acres of Empire. Elgar's greatest music, though largely written in the tempestuous years of Edward VII's reign, captured the diverse spirit of the Victorian age, that of private introspection and gentle melancholy, far removed from specious sentimentality. Optimism and doubt in conflict, the dynamic of Elgar's symphonic music, was one characteristic of the 'Victorian enigma' to which Mr Green refers. It is part of the imperishable glory of Elgar's achievement that in his soul was fought the conflict of his
age. B. S. Cherrington 11 Portland Avenue, Sidcup, Kent
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