Jean Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 (1904)
Edgar Elgar Variations on an Original Theme for orchestra, Op. 36 (Enigma) (1899)
24.10.2025 FLAGEY BRUSSELS
Edward Elgar (1857-1934) was not only a musician and composer, but also a great lover of puzzles and cryptograms. No wonder, then, that he also worked some of these into his music, with the Enigma Variations as the best-known example. The term 'Enigma' refers on the one hand to the coded nicknames or initials of friends whom he pictured in the variations, but also to an overarching phantom theme that is said to lie at the origin of the work. However, that theme is never played and has therefore been shrouded in mystery since its creation.
The opening of the Violin Concerto in D minor by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) is equally mysterious. After a dark beginning, the melody climbs to the heights and a broad symphonic landscape emerges. Despite a catastrophic première, Sibelius’ only violin concerto has now become a favourite of many soloists. That includes Liza Ferschtman: ‘It’s a work of extremes with a broad range of emotions. (...) In a little more than half an hour, you are drawn into a breathtaking universe.’
Sibelius wrote only one violin concerto, even though as a child he had dreamt of becoming a violinist. The Finnish composer set down his initial ideas in 1899, but it was not until the autumn of 1903 that he could devote himself fully to it. A few months later, his wife Aino wrote in a letter: ‘He has such a multitude of themes in his head that he has been literally quite dizzy. He stays awake all night and plays incredibly beautifully.’
Initially, Sibelius dedicated his Violin Concerto to the renowned violinist Willy Burmester, who was supposed to play the première in Berlin. But as circumstances would have it, the premiere ultimately took place in Helsinki, and because Burmester was unavailable, Sibelius asked the Hungarian violinist and educator Victor Nováček. He agreed, but had scarcely any time to learn the very demanding solo part – Sibelius finished the work just before the première on 8 February 1904. The concert was a fiasco, after which Sibelius forbade the first version from ever being performed again: ‘I shall withdraw my violin concerto; it will not be published until two years have passed. The first movement must be rewritten, and the same goes for the proportions in the Andante, etc.’
That summer, Sibelius left Helsinki for his rural home Ainola on Lake Tuusula. There he reworked his Violin Concerto in peace and quiet into the version that is so beloved today. No one less than Richard Strauss conducted the première on 19 October 1905, this time with Karel Halíř as the soloist. Today, the work is on the repertoire of just about every top violinist. It is truly a work of virtuosity, though Sibelius strove to achieve balance between technical showmanship and melody. In its first version, he had already played with expectations: he shifted the traditional soloist’s cadence to the middle of the first movement. Thus, it serves as a development of the theme in the sonata form. Sibelius saved the true virtuosity for the end: while lyricism dominates in the first and second movements, in the final movement the soloist has to pull off breakneck feats to keep up with the rousing dance.
The Enigma Variations, one of the British composer Edward Elgar’s best-known works, came to be almost by chance. After a long day of teaching in October 1898, Elgar sat down and began to improvise at the piano. When his wife Alice asked him what he was playing, Elgar answered: ‘Nothing, but something might be made of it.’ Building further on the theme that his wife found so beautiful, he composed fourteen variations.
‘This work, commenced in a spirit of humour and continued in deep seriousness’, as Elgar described the work that would mark his breakthrough as a composer. He initially titled it Variations on an Original Theme, but later changed the name to Enigma Variations and dedicated it to his ‘friends pictured within’. But as the term ‘enigma’ implies, the variations do not constitute explicit portraits of those friends or loved ones. It involves subtle references to a specific character trait or sometimes to an event that he had experienced with a given person. Moreover, Elgar gave each variation a nickname that he alone knew, of with initials – as ‘CAE’ in the first variation, referring to his wife Caroline Alice Elgar. The most renowned variation is undoubtedly the ninth, titled Nimrod for the Old Testament hunter. Elgar dedicated this movement to the German music critic and publisher August Jäger [which means hunter in German], who played an important role in his career. This variation contains a quotation from Beethoven’s eighth piano sonata, a composer whom Jäger always held out as an example when Elgar was in a slump.’
Elgar’s codes behind the series of portraits of friends were quickly cracked by the outside world. But the greatest riddle in this composition has never been solved even more than a hundred years later, despite countless musicological investigations and speculation. That was, of course, Elgar’s intention.
'A dark saying that must be left unguessed.’ Fourteen variations on a single theme—it sounds simple, almost trivial, maybe even a bit dull. Yet the playful sketch Elgar improvised one evening at the piano grew into one of the most iconic works in the symphonic repertoire.
During this musical lecture, the passionate pianist and storyteller Florestan Bataillie guides you through the mysterious world of Elgar’s Enigma Variations, revealing how each variation paints a deeply personal portrait of the people who shaped the composer’s life. Whether you’re already an aficionado or simply curious, everyone is welcome, and no prior knowledge is required!
'A dark saying that must be left unguessed.’ Fourteen variations on a single theme—it sounds simple, almost trivial, maybe even a bit dull. Yet the playful sketch Elgar improvised one evening at the piano grew into one of the most iconic works in the symphonic repertoire.
‘That old, but eternally new subject, Romeo and Juliet.’ Romeo and Juliet is the ultimate love story, which Tchaikovsky transforms into a gripping musical drama, full of passion, tension, and lyrical beauty.
