Donald Macleod explores how Elgar's lack of formal training affected his confidence and his career, and how he felt snubbed by musical academics like Stanford and Parry.

Elgar is the composer we turn to in times of national celebration, of pride (Pomp and Circumstance Marches) and of public grief (Nimrod). He mingled with royalty and was made a knight of the realm, seemingly a pillar of the Edwardian and early 20th-century British establishment. And yet, for most of his life he felt himself to be a misfit, an outsider. This week of programmes explores some of the reasons for that sense of unbelonging.

Elgar had little formal training - he never went to university or music college - and was suspicious of academics such as Parry and Stanford who ruled the English musical establishment. Elgar felt his career suffered because of this, and yet his music become more widely known and loved than that of many of his contemporaries.

There is Sweet Music
Tenebrae
Nigel Short, conductor

Introduction and Allegro
LSO String Ensemble
Roman Simovic, conductor

In Smyrna
Stephen Hough, piano

Symphony No.1 in A flat
I. Andante (Nobilmente e semplice) - Allegro
Berlin Staatskapelle
Daniel Barenboim, conductor

Pomp and Circumstance March No.4 in G
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Andre Previn, conductor

Producer: Graham Rogers Show less