Performed by Catherine Carby, the New Zealand Youth Choir, the NZSO National Youth Orchestra, conducted by James Judd
Catherine Carby with James Judd and National Youth Orchestra Photo: Latitude Creative
Elgar completed The Music Makers work in 1912, but he’d been working on it since 1903. It seems to have been a very personal work for him because he was writing it without any specific commission.
He set a poem called ‘Ode’ by Arthur Shaughnessy which celebrates the isolated, dreaming, creative artist. While the sentiment obviously resonated strongly with Elgar, who probably saw a depiction of himself in the poem, the text itself is somewhat tawdry:
“We are the music-makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams, wandering by lone sea-breakers, and sitting by desolate streams; World-losers and world-forsakers, on whom the pale moon gleams; yet we are the movers and shakers of the world for ever, it seems.”
To underline the autobiographical nature of the piece, Elgar quotes himself extensively with extracts from The Dream of Gerontius, the Violin Concerto, the symphonies, and Nimrod from the Enigma Variations.
Unfortunately, the work was derided by critics after its premiere in Birmingham, but this was largely because of the text, which by 1912, with the First World War around the corner, seemed outmoded and corny. It has never really established itself as a regular in the concert hall, especially outside Britain, but in many ways it’s a gorgeous work so we’re lucky to hear it here.
Recorded by RNZ Concert, Auckland Town Hall, 6 July 2019
Producer: Tim Dodd; Engineers: Rangi Powick, Adrian Hollay
