Elgar: Salut d'Amour for violin and piano, Op. 12

if you remember those kreisler pieces liebesfreud and liebesleid, this was originally going to be called "liebesgruss," which means the same thing in german - because his betrothed was german-speaking. he wrote this as an engagement gift, in july 1888 when he was 31 (his wife-to-be gave him a poem as her own gift, which he later set to music).

this is early elgar, and reflects a pretty young and optimistic composer, before he began to focus on his own alienation from both higher level music and social circles. he wrote enigma in 1899, which was his first breakthrough. but this is music of a different, simpler, very appealing sort.

here is a very lovely rendition by kyung wha chung.

through the years elgar and others have released many different versions/instrumentations of this piece which is really a song. the violin/piano arrangement is the original.

really very little needs to be explained about this piece :)