Conducted by Peter Montgomery
Muriel Childe (contralto)
The first Wand of Youth' Suite
(the second was written very much later) is composed of music which Elgar wrote in 1869 when he was only twelve years old, revised and scored for orchestra in his maturity. Originally he composed it for a children's play, no details of which are revealed in the score, though a few of the stage directions are preserved. It was first played at a Queen's Hall Symphony Concert conducted by Sir Henry Wood in December, 1907, and has ever since been one of the most popular of Elgar's lighter suites. The titles of the separate numbers are self-explanatory, the last two movements, Fairy Piper, and Fairies and Giants, giving the clue to the kind of play for which the music was first written.