String Quartet (Elgar)

The String Quartet in E minor, Op. 83, was one of three major chamber music works composed by Sir Edward Elgar in 1918. The others were the Violin Sonata in E minor, Op. 82, and the Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 84. Along with the Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 of 1919, these were to be his last major works prior to his death in 1934.

The String Quartet lasts for around 25 minutes and is in three movements:

The slow middle movement was a favourite of Elgar's wife Lady Elgar, who described it as "captured sunshine". It was played at her funeral in 1920, by Albert Sammons, W. H Reed, Lionel Tertis and Felix Salmond. It contains a quotation from Elgar's Chanson de Matin.

When he visited the composer during his final illness and after having listened to a gramophone recording of the second movement, Arthur Troyte Griffith remarked: ″Surely that is as fine as a movement by Beethoven.″ Elgar agreed: ″Yes it is, and there is something in it that has never been done before.″ When asked what he meant, Elgar merely replied: ″Nothing you would understand, merely an arrangement of notes". Brian Newbould has proposed that Elgar may have hinted at a shortened restatement of the opening theme before the coda. Presumably after the completion of the movement, he crossed the fourth bar (between bb. 263 and 264) through, but was still able to retain the original harmonisation.

Elgar had written a string quartet much earlier in his career, to which he assigned the opus number 8, but destroyed it. He made several other attempts, which all came to nothing. For example, he put aside work on a quartet to work on his First Symphony.

This quartet originated from a request by Carl Fuchs, cellist of the Brodsky Quartet and professor at the Royal Manchester College of Music. In February 1900, Elgar and his wife attended a performance of his Enigma Variations in Manchester, conducted by Hans Richter. At supper after the concert Richter introduced Elgar to Adolph Brodsky and his wife, and to Carl Fuchs. Fuchs then asked Elgar to compose a quartet for them.

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