Edward Elgar was arguably the leading English composer of his generation and a significant figure among late Romantic European musicians. Born in the Worcester in 1857, the son of a piano-tuner and owner of a music shop, he earned his earlier living as an organist, violinist and teacher in his own part of the country. After his marriage in 1889 he found himself able to move to London as a composer, but success only came later, after his return to the Midlands, confirmed by the Enigma Variations, first performed in London in 1899. He wrote relatively little after the death of his wife in 1920.
