ELGAR AS I KNEW HIM
By W. H. Reed
This informal study of Sir Edward Elgar (Gollanez, 15s.), by the leader of the London Symphony Orchestra who had been for over 30 years not only his constant colleague but his intimate friend, is welt worth reading. The greater and more valuable part of the book consists of personal memories of the composer and paints the lively portrait of a man singularly unlike the conventional notion of a composer : simple, good-tempered, sporting, child- like—at times almost childish—in his amusements. What would a continental critic say if he had -discovered the grosse Englische Oratoriokompo»ist and his Konzertmeister playing " Beaver " in the streets of Gloucester during a Three Choirs Festival ? Or overheard lihn remark to Reed after a per- formance of Gerontius : " Billy, I believe there is a lot of double counter- point, or whatever they call it, in that " He was a matchless conductor of his own works, and we are grateful to Mr. Reed for recording his delightful in- junction concerning that wayward B flat melody in the Trio of the First Sym- phony's Scherzo : " Don't play it like that : play it like—like something we hear down by the river." A moving account of the composer's death leads to a discussion of his music, which, though neither critical nor complete, is full of interesting points ; and the book is rounded Off by notes on' the unfinished Third Symphony, together with 42 pages of manuscript sketches,. which are enough to show that Elgar's -death deprived England—one can hardly say the world—of an admirable addition to the symphonic repertory.
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