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AN ELGAR CONCERT AT OSTEND.
(BY OUR SPECIAI, CORRESPONDENT.)
Ostend, August 14.

A great honour was accorded to Sir Edward Elgar, and through him to English music, when M. Leon Rinskopf invited him to conduct a concert consisting entirely of his own compositions. This took place at the Kursaal tonight, and it was a very great pleasure to me to be present at the first musical 'Festival' - as the programme designated the concert - in Belgium, if not on the Continent, devoted exclusively to the works of one of our most distinguished composers and conducted by himself.

The programme is subjoined, literally as printed:

VENDREDI, 14 AOUT I908
à 8 heures du soir
FESTIVAL
consacré aux oeuvres du compositeur anglais
Sir EDWARD ELGAR,
sous la direction du Maitre
avec le concours de Mlle. TILLY KOENEN, cantatrice.

PREMIERE PARTIE.
Dans le Midi, ouverture.
Marines, mélodies, avec accompagnement d'orchestre.
a. Berceuse; b. Au Port; c. Dimanche matin, en mer.
Mlle. TILLY KOENEN.
La Baguette magique de la Jeunesse, suite d'orchestre.
a. Ouverture; b. Sérénade: c. Menuet; d. Danse du Soleil; e. Joueurs de pipeaux féeriques; f. Berceuse; g. Fées et géants.

DEUXIEME PARTIE.
Variations pour orchestre.
Marines, mélodies, avec accompagnement d'orchestre.
d. Vers les îlots du corail ; e. Le nageur.
Mlle. TILLY KOENEN.
Marche triomphale de Caractacus.

The words of the songs were printed in English and with a French translation, and each orchestral piece had a short descriptive note, of which the following, treating of the 'Variations on an original theme,' will serve as a specimen:

“Ces variations, sur un theme original, portant la dedicace: "A ceux de mes amis qui y sont dépeints"; il est entendu qu'elles dépeignent plus au moins la personnalité de ces amis. Les caractères et idiosyncrasies évoqués offrent des contrastes très marqués, les mouvements allant du largo au presto.
Le thème andante en sol mineur est intitulé Enigme, l'auteur ayant voulu suggérer que la solution ou la portée de l'idée qu'il contient varie selon les portraits des amis auxquels l'auteur a songé dans ses Variations.”

When Sir Edward Elgar appeared on the orchestra, the band rose and greeted him with a brilliant fanfare, thus paying him a tribute of high and rare distinction. The orchestral playing can be summed up in one word -'superb'; and in regard to M. Rinskopf, the able conductor of the orchestra, and the director of the Kursaal, nothing could have been more cordial than their attitude of profound admiration and appreciation towards the hero of the day; indeed, all concerned spared no pains in contributing to the success of this most interesting event.

I have no hesitation in saying that Sir Edward has achieved a very great success, both as a composer and conductor, by this performance, which is nothing less than a triumph for British music. The applause throughout was remarkable for its genuine expression of feeling. After the concert 'God save the King' was spontaneously played by the band with wonderful effect, whereupon the entire audience, numbering some 7,000 people, rose and remained standing until our National Hymn was finished; and then the enthusiasm for the composer-conductor was so overwhelming that he had to appear again and again in response to the calls of the delighted hearers of his music.

By a fortunate circumstance, some of the most eminent French and Belgian composers happened to be in the town to adjudicate upon an opera competition, and they were all present at the rehearsal of the Elgar concert. It was an act of gracious hospitality on the part of M. Rinskopf to invite these distinguished gentlemen and others to meet Sir Edward Elgar at lunch, and a happy thought to have them photographed in a group. This interesting picture I was fortunate enough to be able to procure for reproduction in THE MUSICAL TIMES.

The following are some translated extracts from the press notices of the festival: Our readers will find a special notice of the Elgar festival.

...It was a manifestation of the highest importance, not only artistic but international. There is, indeed, no doubt that the exceptionally warm reception reserved for the British composer will increase the appreciation of Ostend among our neighbours on the other side of the channel…
Unknown yesterday, celebrated tomorrow, perhaps. This may be said of Edward Elgar, the British composer, who came on Friday to reveal to us that it is possible to be English and to be a musician, a combination which we had been fond of thinking impossible... Let us proceed to say that the abundance of happy harmonic discoveries, richness of invention, intensity of expression, power in sweetness - a rare charm - form in Edward Elgar a combination of the most precious gifts with which an artist nature can be endowed... Edward Elgar seems to be very easily impressed by the agitations of nature… his music dashes onwards, rushes, bounds, then softens again, melts to return to sympathetic harmony. Listen to 'In the South' and to the 'Wand of Youth,' and it [the music] is beautiful… because it is beautiful. Elgar, without being a revolutionist, has forged a personal harmonic language, very beautiful and very living, and that is a sufficient claim to glory... The fashionable and discerning audience of the Kursaal made this plain to Edward Elgar in the triumph they accorded to him. - Echo d'Ostende, August 17, I908.

On Friday there was a remarkable, sensational soiree. Sir Edward Elgar, the great English composer, conducted a concert consisting only of his own works, full of colour, originality, and full of surprises… Mlle. Tilly Koenen interpreted the cycle Sea-pictures, in which the composer has had recourse to all the colours of his palette, from the most tender to the most sombre. He painted Sea-slumber, in Haven, Sabbath morning at sea, marvellously, with extremely rich effects of harmony. With the exception of the 'Variations’, which Rinskopf has sometimes given us, all these pieces were new to the orchestra. Sir Edward was astonished at the first rehearsal, and if he had not been assured that it was the case, he would never have believed that the orchestra was reading his works for the first time, so superior was their rendering of them. And yet Elgar is difficult, very difficult, and likes to stop the orchestra for a scarcely perceptible 'nuance’. - This renders the compliment to Rinskopf infinitely greater, more flattering, and the gentlemen of the orchestra were deeply touched by the felicitations of the English master. The audience was enormous, and composed of all nationalities. - Le Carillon, Ostend, August 18, I908.

The Elgar festival marks what the English call 'a redletter day' in the history of the Kursaal concerts. Sir Edward Elgar, who occupies at the present day a remarkable position among our greatest composers, exercises an especial charm by his limpid melodiousness, by the clearness of his polyphony, and the beauty of his orchestral 'timbre’. Above all, his music is always written in a noble style, and is always of irreproachable purity. There is not a single page in the long programme which the illustrious English composer submitted to us, which might not serve as a model. It is sane music, it is Art, in the full acceptation of the word. - Journal d'Anvers, August 22, I908.