Elgar: The Man Behind the Mask, BBC Four | reviews, news & interviews
Elgar: The Man Behind the Mask, BBC Four
Elgar: The Man Behind the Mask, BBC Four
John Bridcut's documentary probes the great composer's uneasy, troubled soul

Where is the real Elgar to be found – in his boisterous self-portrait at the end of the Enigma Variations, the warm, feminine sentiment of the Violin Concerto and the First Symphony’s Adagio, or the nightmares of the Second Symphony? No doubt in each of them, and more. John Bridcut’s painfully sensitive documentary hones in on the private, introspective Elgar, the dark knight of "ghosts and shadows", always with the music to the fore. And by getting the good and great, young and old of the musical world not just to talk but to react to the works as they hear them, he may have broken new ground.
Where is the real Elgar to be found – in his boisterous self-portrait at the end of the Enigma Variations, the warm, feminine sentiment of the Violin Concerto and the First Symphony’s Adagio, or the nightmares of the Second Symphony? No doubt in each of them, and more. John Bridcut’s painfully sensitive documentary hones in on the private, introspective Elgar, the dark knight of "ghosts and shadows", always with the music to the fore. And by getting the good and great, young and old of the musical world not just to talk but to react to the works as they hear them, he may have broken new ground.
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I have only just seen this
In a year when Elgar Symphony
I asked John Bridcut. His
I asked John Bridcut. His reply as to whether the documentary would be out on DVD:'I'm still hoping so, but not immediately. Hoping very much it will be next year.' We hope so too. He has one on Karajan due to be screened later this year.