This is a book to treasure,
written by two authors who have clearly
accumulated an immense knowledge and
understanding of the life and works
of Elgar. It is a meticulous and imaginative
survey of the Elgars’ years at Brinkwells,
the isolated cottage in the depths of
the beautiful West Sussex countryside
to which Elgar, and his wife Alice,
retreated from a London torn by the
horrors of World War I. Here Elgar found
peace and inspiration to write his three
chamber works: the Violin Sonata String
Quartet, and Piano Quintet in A minor;
plus the Cello Concerto in E minor.
The authors have astutely
chosen to highlight the work of the
artist Rex Vicat Cole from whom the
Elgars rented the cottage while the
artist was away on war duties. Elgar
was able to use Vicat Cole’s substantial
studio, in the cottage grounds, with
its inspirational views across the countryside,
as a music room. The book includes a
number of coloured plates of the artist’s
paintings: woodland landscapes revealing
Vicat Cole’s love of trees, a love shared,
of course, by the composer: "This
is what I hear all day – the trees are
singing my music – or have I sung theirs?"
(Elgar: letter to August Jaeger, 11
July 1900).
Vicat Cole’s career
and his meticulous representations of
tree shapes and foliage patterns in
paintings that show an almost pantheistic
reverence, is engagingly covered as
well as the painter’s family’s love
for Brinkwells and their reluctance
to let the Elgars - Carice and Edward
after the death of Alice Elgar in 1920
- buy the cottage’s main lease from
them; the property was in the ownership
of the local Stopham estate.
Carol Fitzgerald and
Brian W. Harvey begin their book by
setting the importance of Elgar’s music
in the context of the English Music
Renaissance then proceed to a more contentious
section on what some may regard as the
variable quality of Elgar’s output and
the worth of his more patriotic works.
Elgar’s psychological makeup and his
various physical ailments around the
time of the Brinkwells rentings - including
troublesome and painful septic tonsils
- are all discussed, together with his
growing disinclination towards conventional
religious beliefs. All the factors leading
up to Alice’s search and finding of
the cottage to satisfy the composer’s
yearning for the peace of the English
countryside, are covered. Much space
is given to the help and inspiration
of friends like the author Algernon
Blackwood with whom Elgar had collaborated
to produce The Starlight Express
and who very likely dreamed up the ghostly
story of the Spanish monks who were
transformed into the grisly shapes of
some distorted trees near Brinkwells,
because of their satanic rituals: a
fancy that was to find its way into
the writing of much of Elgar’s chamber
music; his muse Alice Stuart Wortley
‘the Windflower’ and his japester friend
and musical helper, Billy Reed.
The Elgars’ everyday
life at Brinkwells is charmingly related
– it becomes very noticeable how the
burdens of running the household and
organising the journeys to and from
London fell to Alice, while Elgar concentrated
on his hobbies: woodwork and fishing,
for instance, as well as his music;
but both found time to enjoy their surroundings
and numerous walks. The chapter on the
ailing Alice as she sank towards her
death on 7 April 1920, and its devastating
effect on Elgar, is most poignant.
Astute analyses of
the all four Brinkwells works are included
with quoted comments from contemporary
and modern observers. Also included
is a calendar summarising the Elgars
at Brinkwells, a list of Elgar’s eminent
doctors, and details of the Vicat Coles’
lease of the cottage. There are also
a number of pictures that I cannot remember
seeing before including one of Elgar’s
daughter Carice outside Brinkwells in
1935 and another two of Carice’s dog
Meg - one with Elgar and the other with
Carice One thing I did miss - a survey
of recordings of the works and the authors’
recommendations.
An imaginative and
in-depth examination of the inspirational
beauty of an English southern county
woodland on the works of Elgar and Rex
Vicat Cole his landlord and inspired
landscape painter, both entranced by
trees. A book for all Elgar enthusiasts
to treasure.
Ian Lace
