Cockaigne (In London Town), Op. 40, also known as the Cockaigne Overture, is a concert overture for full orchestra written by the English composer Edward Elgar in 1900–1901. It was his first purely orchestral work after his Enigma Variations had propelled him to national celebrity and it was an immediate success and has been much performed in concert and on record ever since.

History The success of Elgar's Enigma Variations in 1899 was followed by the initial failure of The Dream of Gerontius, which caused the composer to become dispirited and declare that God was against art. Nevertheless, he received a commission from the Royal Philharmonic Society and began work on a new piece and soon reported that it was "cheerful and Londony, 'stout and steaky'... honest, healthy, humorous and strong, but not vulgar".Kennedy (1993), p. 80

The first performance was in the Queen's Hall, London at a Royal Philharmonic Society concert, on 20 June 1901, conducted by the composer.Kennedy (1993), p. 346 He dedicated the work to his "many friends, the members of British orchestras." The music was an immediate success and became one of Elgar's most popular works. It continues to appear regularly in the concert hall, on disc and on broadcasts. Elgar's biographer, Michael Kennedy writes that it is "Elgar's finest overture".Kennedy (1970), p. 29

Description In its 15 minutes or so the overture gives a lively and colourful musical portrait of Edwardian London. "Cockaigne" was a term used by moralists at that time as a metaphor for gluttony and drunkenness, while Britain adopted the name humorously for London. The work presents various aspects of turn-of-the-century London and Londoners.Rushton, p. 144 It begins with a quiet but bustling theme which leads into an unbroken sequence of snapshots: the cockneys, the church bells, the romantic couples, a slightly ragged brass band (perhaps the Salvation Army) and a contrastingly grand and imperious military band. The broad theme representing Londoners is the first occurrence in an orchestral score of Elgar’s trademark direction, nobilmente (nobly).Fallows, David, and Michael Kennedy. "Nobilmente", Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press. 2001 The work culminates in a characteristically Elgarian blaze of orchestral sound – including a full organ – in E, leading to closing bars in C.

Mindful of the way Elgar brings his themes together at the climax of the piece, both Bernard Shaw and W. H. "Billy" Reed compared the work to Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Prelude, which culminates in the combination of several themes. Shaw, in a long article on Elgar in 1920, wrote:

Reed wrote:

The Elgar scholar Julian Rushton writes that although there are echoes of Die Meistersinger, and both overtures "use busy counterpoint within a loose sonata pattern", Elgar’s aural pictures are quite different from Wagner's medieval Nuremberg: "his London is not only the hub of an Empire but the city of music-hall and Covent Garden (market, not opera)".

Recordings ConductorOrchestraYear Sir Edward Elgar Royal Albert Hall Orchestra 1926 Sir Edward Elgar BBC Symphony Orchestra 1933Malcolm SargentNBC Symphony Orchestra1945 Eduard van Beinum London Philharmonic Orchestra 1950 Sir Thomas Beecham Royal Philharmonic Orchestra 1955 Sir John Barbirolli Hallé Orchestra 1955 Sir Adrian Boult London Philharmonic Orchestra 1957 Sir John Barbirolli Philharmonia Orchestra 1963 George Weldon Royal Philharmonic Orchestra 1964 Colin Davis London Symphony Orchestra 1965 Colin Davis BBC Symphony Orchestra 1969 Eugene Ormandy Philadelphia Orchestra 1972 Sir Adrian Boult London Philharmonic Orchestra 1972 George Hurst Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra 1972 Edward Heath London Symphony Orchestra 1972 Daniel Barenboim London Philharmonic Orchestra 1974 Sir Georg Solti London Philharmonic Orchestra 1976 Vernon Handley London Philharmonic Orchestra 1979 Sir Alexander Gibson Royal Scottish National Orchestra 1983 Neville Marriner Dresden Staatskapelle 1983 Leonard Slatkin London Philharmonic Orchestra 1989 David Zinman Baltimore Symphony Orchestra 1989 William Boughton English Symphony Orchestra 1989 Owain Arwel Hughes London Philharmonic Orchestra 1989Sir Charles GrovesRoyal Philharmonic Orchestra1990 Sir Andrew Davis BBC Symphony Orchestra 1991 Sir Charles Mackerras London Symphony Orchestra 1991 Yehudi Menuhin Royal Philharmonic Orchestra 1991 Adrian Leaper Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra 1991 André Previn London Symphony Orchestra 1993 Jeffrey Tate London Symphony Orchestra 1995 Bramwell Tovey Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra 1998 Sir Mark Elder Hallé Orchestra 2003 Sakari Oramo Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra 2014Alexander SoddyMannheim National Theatre Orchestra2024 Source: WorldCat and Naxos Music Library

References

Sources

External links