Jane jones classic fm biography of william

Jane Jones reveals the inspirations behind a piece that was the turning point for Elgar and English music.

‘I have sketched a set of variations on an original theme: the Variations have amused me because I’ve labelled them with the nicknames of my particular friends’.

So wrote Elgar in a letter to his publisher Jaeger, known as Nimrod in the set of Variations. 

Elgar goes on to explain that each characterisation is meant to represent the mood of the person themselves, with Elgar’s assertion that ‘I have written what I think they would have written – if they were asses enough to compose – it’s a quaint idea and the result is amusing to those behind the scenes…’ In fact, Elgar’s most popular orchestral composition has amused his fans and classical music lovers for more than a century since the hugely successful premiere under the baton of the German