Edward Elgar Essentials

There's an obvious grandiloquence to the music of this composer, whose career bridged the Victorian and Edwardian eras in Britain. He is, after all, the fellow who wrote the Pomp and Circumstance Marches (which have soundtracked many a graduation). But Elgar's catalogue isn't just accompaniment for ceremony; other compositions—such as his concertos, cantatas, the Enigma Variations and two symphonies—helped jump-start the English classical music tradition at the turn of the 20th century. Though critics and other composers have long debated the appropriate size of his stature, his importance to generations of British conductors (like Sir Colin Davis and Sir Simon Rattle) is clear.