LDV42

24 BLOCH | ELGAR The Great War exhausted Edward Elgar both physically and morally, and his inspiration dried up after the few patriotic opuses that the conflict wrenched from him. His wife Alice rented a charming cottage called Brinkwells, near Fittleworth in the Sussex Downs, from the painter Rex Vicat Cole. Finally, Elgar returned to his desk to write three chamber music works in succession, the Violin Sonata, the Piano Quintet and the String Quartet, all characterised by a sombre lyricism. These announced his swansong, the Cello Concerto written in 1919. Elgar was sixty-two years old, and Alice had been diagnosed with lung cancer: did he want to ward off ill fortune by returning to the concertante form that had earned him fabulous success with his Violin Concerto?