Although often regarded as quintessentially English in style, Elgar’s music is undeniably deeply rooted in the German Romantic tradition. Elgar’s gift for the creation of melody, often sequential and frequently including one of his most familiar fingerprints, the falling seventh might well be the most obvious attraction in his music. But underpinning those melodies is a sophisticated harmonic vocabulary which often reveals that wider Germanic influence, especially in moments of drama.

It is ...