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A few years later Elgar’s career reached a milestone. When in 1898 he composed “The Enigma Variations” dedicated to his friends ‘pictured within’. Many of the Elgars’ Malvern friends are included in the fourteen variations, each one hidden behind initials or a code, which have long since been revealed.At about this time the Elgar family moved form “Forli” to a larger house in Welsh Road, Malvern which looked out over a wide expanse of the countryside. From his study window Elgar said that he could see Worcester Cathedral, the Abbeys of Tewkesbury and Pershore, to Edgehill, and ‘even the smoke coming round from Birmingham’

By now things were improving and the royalties from his works were flowing in. In 1900 he composed “The Dream of Gerontius”. Alas the work was neither well performed or well received, and it was only at its third performance in Dusseldorf, that it received true recognition.

Other works followed, “The Apostles” the “Cockaigne” overture, and the first of his “Pomp and Circumstance” marches. He was also working on his Symphony but he found progress slow and difficult.

After so many years of painful struggling Elgar was at last coming into his own. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Music at Cambridge and then following a three day festival of his works at Covent Garden which was attended by their Majesties King Edward V11and Queen Alexandra he was awarded a knighthood.

Success took Elgar more and more to London and eventually they bought a house in Hampstead which he called “Severn House”.
When Alice died in 1920, she was buried in the churchyard of the village Catholic Church at Little Malvern. Edward was desolate and found the large “Severn House” sad and empty. Three years later he moved back to his beloved Malverns. He continued to play a part in the Three Choirs Festival, and became a close friend of George Bernard Shaw whose plays were produced at the Malvern Festival where the two men would often be seen together.

Elgar moved to a house in Worcester, from which he could see the path he used to take to school more than sixty years previously.
In 1932 Elgar reached his seventy-fifth birthday and although he had not completed a major work since his wife’s death he accepted a commission to write a third Symphony. He wrote sketches for the work and evidently had the symphony on his mind, but it was never put down on paper. His health was failing, and he died at his home on 23rd February 1934.

Shaw once said: “Of all English composers Elgar is alone for Westminster Abbey,” but true to himself Elgar was buried alongside his wife in the churchyard at Little Malvern, literally within the shadow of the Malvern Hills which he so loved, and which influenced so much of his life and work.

This year the Three Choirs Festival is being held in Hereford. The 2006 festival offers concert goers an exciting mix of classical music across the centuries. Once again Hereford Cathedral will echo with the music of Edward Elgar, whose spirit still pervades the lovely old Malvern Hills. For further details see www.3choirs.org.
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