A turn of the century description of London through the eyes of Edward Elgar, the Cockaigne Overture (In London Town) was one of the composer’s more immediately successful works, though it pales in comparison to the regularity with which Enigma Variations is played today. Nonetheless, since its premier, it has been compared in Wagnerian terms and has seen revivals from time to time. The opening build up is similar in compositional technique to Enigma and even echoes the final movement of that piece in its overlay of themes in a contrapuntally thick texture.

Closing thought: it’s amazing that this came only 20-some years before Schoenberg and Rhapsody in Blue. The first quarter of the 20th century was simply explosive in development.

The composer’s interpretation of his own music on Spotify.