HAVPCD337 – EDWARDIAN SPLENDOUR
HAVPCD337 – EDWARDIAN SPLENDOUR
The Edwardian era: the image that more than likely springs up, sepia-toned, before the mind’s eye is of moustachioed, stiff-backed men, ivoried parasols and tea on the lawn. If it was a period of recovery from the Boer Wars, of moral relaxation after strict Victorianism and of solid middle class prosperity, it was also a time of tense and febrile European relations. To some extent music covered its ears and continued heedless, preoccupied with the heady foibles of comfortable society. Yet at the same time sensitive and pensive artistic souls, shedding at least a portion of their Victorian emotional torpor, began to assert themselves through the depth and originality of the music, painting and literature. Parry and Elgar were the first musicians to begin to open their eyes to new possibilities.
