Enigma Variations

'A dark saying that must be left unguessed.’ Fourteen variations on a single theme—it sounds simple, almost trivial, maybe even a bit dull. Yet the playful sketch Elgar improvised one evening at the piano grew into one of the most iconic works in the symphonic repertoire.

It all begins with a variation portraying his friend Billy Baker—and soon, his entire circle of friends takes the stage in music. The real ‘Enigma’? It’s not just about who’s who behind each variation, but also about the hidden theme itself… a secret Elgar took to his grave.

‘Music begins where the possibilities of language end.’ Jean Sibelius composed his only violin concerto for himself—or perhaps for the dream he once held dear. ‘For ten years, my greatest ambition was to become a violin virtuoso,’ he wrote in his diary at the age of fourteen. That dream would never come true, and in his concerto, one hears both the sorrow of that loss and a deep, intuitive understanding of the instrument.

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