Edward Elgar

Sir Edward Elgar was an English composer, born at Lower Broadheath near Worcester, many of whose works entered the British and international concert repertoire. Self-taught, a Roman Catholic in Protestant Britain and sensitive about his humble origins, he struggled for success until his forties, when the Enigma Variations (1899) became popular in Britain and abroad, followed by the choral work The Dream of Gerontius (1900). He also wrote the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, two symphonies and concertos for violin and cello, and was appointed Master of the King's Musick in 1924. Described as the first composer to take the gramophone seriously, he recorded most of his major orchestral works.