Lili Kraus (piano)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
(Leader, Paul Beard )
Conducted by Sir Adrian Boult
(Continued in next column)
Beethoven's Piano Concerto in C minor has an unusually fine slow movement, so it is interesting to. recall that * Nimrod,' the most famous of the Enigma Variations, owed its origin to an evening walk when A. J. Jaeger discoursed eloquently to Elgar on the slow movements of Beethoven.
' Nimrod ' is thus both an evocation of the general mood of Beethoven's slow movements (with a marked suggestion of the Adagio of the ' Pathetique ') and a tribute to Jaeger, a man who was, in Elgar's words, ' a dear friend, valued adviser, and stern critic.' And since the word Jaeger, in German, means ' hunter,' Elgar chose, as the title of the variation, the name of Nimrod, the ' mighty hunter.'
Harold Rutland