BBC Music Magazine

Elgar lends his composing talents to the Polish cause

On 6 July 1915, Sir Edward Elgar mounted the conductor’s podium at the Queen’s Hall in London to lead the London Symphony Orchestra in a grandly patriotic composition he had recently written. One of his famous , presumably? Not exactly. The piece was called – the Latin word for Poland – and Elgar had written it for a special concert in aid

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