Utah Symphony Brings Lyrical Storytelling To Life With Elgar's ENIGMA VARIATIONS

From a single melody, Elgar cleverly created 14 different variations capturing caricature-like aspects of his friends and family (and even a dog). This weekend, audiences are invited to witness this energetic storytelling come to life through Elgar's Enigma Variations performed by the Utah Symphony.

The two evening concerts will take place Friday and Saturday, January 6 and 7, at Abravanel Hall in downtown Salt Lake City. In addition, the Utah Symphony will perform two works featuring lyrical imagery-Helen Grime's Near Midnight and Bruch's Scottish Fantasy in which Concertmaster Madeline Adkins will be the featured soloist.

The nocturnal and sometimes melancholy Near Midnight by Scottish composer Helen Grimes captures the essence of reflection and unrest in a series of four sections. Inspired by the poem Week-night Service by D.H. Lawrence, Grimes composed her piece to echo the tolling of bells, stating that their influence in the composition is "sometimes distant but often insistent and clangorous" leading to "these episodes act[ing] as [an] important marker in the structure of the piece." As such, the piece emphasizes the motif of time through the reflective and haunting sound of bells heard within each quarter.

Continuing the Scottish theme, Bruch's Scottish Fantasy will feature violin soloist Madeline Adkins, who has appeared with top orchestras in Europe and the U.S. Though the piece is built on a four-movement fantasy of Scottish folk melodies including "Through the Wood Laddie," "The Dusty Miller," "I'm A' Doun for Lack O' Johnnie," and "Hey Tuttie Tatie," Bruch's composition premiered a year before the composer ever visited Scotland. The artist had access to a wide collection of Scottish music at the Munich Library in 1868, leading him to compose this music that paid homage to the lush country even though he had yet to travel there.

"The piece is based on a number of traditional Scottish tunes and has been on my wish list for many years," says Utah Symphony Concertmaster and soloist Madeline Adkins. "It's quite virtuosic for the violin, but Bruch doesn't shy away from the soulful melodies either. I've really enjoyed the preparation process because it's an upbeat piece that will make you smile."

Following the concerto-like work is Elgar's Enigma Variations. Taking close to five months to complete, Elgar began composing this piece in October of 1898 and published it in February the following year. The composition follows a single melody which is embellished and altered to create 14 distinct variations. The work began as improvisations that the composer, who was still relatively unknown at the time, played for his wife one evening after a long day of teaching music lessons to help make ends meet. The improvisations-sometimes humorous, sometimes sentimental, and always charming-characterized Elgar's friends, family, colleagues, and even a beloved bulldog.

Notably, this piece was titled "Enigma" as a way of expressing the idea of nothingness from which it stemmed rather than the more commonly known definition of a riddle to be solved. However, many historians and musicologists have claimed that there a hidden puzzle within the piece based on Elgar's statement that "The Enigma I will not explain- its 'dark saying' must be left unguessed...over the whole set another and larger theme 'goes,' but is not played ...so, the principal Theme never appears." As a result of this mysterious quote, Elgar challenged the listener to identify the hidden theme that could echo as a harmonization of the main theme heard in the music; everything from "Auld Lang Syne," to "God Save the Queen," to "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" has been guessed, but the riddle was never solved and Elgar took the answer to his grave.

For more information, please visit utahsymphony.org.

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