Raymond GubbayDEAG

One of our most cherished composers will be celebrated this September in the magnificent setting of the Royal Albert Hall.

We have chosen a selection of Elgar's most popular works, including the impassioned Cello Concerto, Cockaigne Overture and Enigma Variations for a special concert which follows last year's sold out success. 2007 as many of you will remember was the 150th anniversary of Elgar's birth and celebrations and concerts were held across the country to mark this significant date. Julian Lloyd Webber was famously rumored to have travelled by helicopter from his performance at Worcestershire Cathedral to play in our evening concert at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday 2 June. Of course, that same year, the Bank of England decided to remove Elgar's portrait from the twenty pound note, replacing him with the economist Adam Smith - quite extraordinary.

Elgar is synonymous in most people's minds with scenes of pastoral England - the Malvern Hills - and with war and remembrance. He was at the peak of his success between the years 1902 and 1914, but his popularity began to wane with the arrival of the First World War. The world had become a different place and his music was falling out of fashion. Yet soon after the war and just before his wife's death in 1920, Elgar composed his masterpiece, the Cello Concerto which Julian Lloyd Webber will perform once again at this year's concert.

In his later years Elgar befriended and mentored many young composers and conductors - Sir Adrian Boult and Sir Malcom Sargent are but two of the famous names. He was also one of the first composers to make recordings of his own compositions, including one with the young Yehudi Menuhin who was just 16 years old.

I do hope you can join me in celebrating the music of this wonderful composer in September.

Sir Edward Elgar was amused that no one could figure out the "enigma" in his Enigma Variations and stoutly refused to divulge the secret. Though he gave hints on occasion, when asked whether he would ever reveal it, Elgar invariably replied: "Never!"

On one occasion, however, he set up a keyboard with numbered notes stuck on the keys and had his friend Troyte Griffith depress the keys in the specified order before exclaiming: "You now know the Enigma!" Unfortunately for Griffith, Elgar's secret was safe. Griffith was entirely tone deaf.