"There is no programme beyond a wide experience of human life with a great charity (love) and a massive hope in the future."

Elgar's own words above describe the creation of a mature man - Elgar was 50 years old when he wrote it. He had long thought of writing a symphony, and had planned one based on the life of General Gordon (how very Edwardian!) but this certainly isn't it. He had already completed several great and popular works such as Enigma Variations and Dream of Gerontius, but was still not confident of large scale symphonic writing. So he reworked some tunes he had written many years earlier into the "Wand of Youth" suite. It was while doing this that he came across the motto theme of this symphony (or rather it found him). His wife's diary for 1907 records the day : "June 27th. E much music. Playing great beautiful tune". This tune, with its stalking bass line which is so much part of it, is the emotional heart of the symphony - indeed the symphony can be seen as a journey to understand this theme in all its aspects, and in its underlying essence.

The symphony claims to be in A flat, and the motto theme is indeed in A flat on all its appearances - at the opening, at the end of the first movement, and at the end of the last movement. But the first and last movements are mostly in D minor, the key the most remote from A flat (try playing the two chords on a keyboard and hear the jarring effect) while the middle movements are in F sharp and D major. So although the essence of the symphony, the motto theme, is in A flat, the symphony itself definitely isn't - despite what it says at the top of the score.

The symphony was written in 1908 and was first performed by the Halle Orchestra in Manchester on 3rd December under the conductor Hans Richter. Elgar dedicated the score to Richter, in appreciation of his advocacy of Elgar's music in Britain and abroad. The symphony was an immediate success, and in just over a year received 100 performances, all over the world.

The symphony opens with the motto theme, great and beautiful, but also noble and spiritual, beyond everyday trivia. The main tune of the allegro which follows with a jolt is the opposite - passionate and energetic, and feels to be struggling towards something, searching for something. The tune gradually transforms, sliding into a calmer 6/4 rhythm, becoming a delicate arabesque on the clarinet. A second subject appears, on violins and then cellos, which somewhat recalls the spirit of the motto, but the mood doesn't last - there is work to be done! More energy and struggle, and the delicate clarinet arabesque from earlier is transformed into music of bitter power. At this revelation of struggle in what had previously been grace the music collapses, and the motto reappears briefly "as through a glass darkly". But we move on, and continue to explore the implications of the allegro main theme, mostly in 6/4 time and with many hesitant rubatos. A surging, heaving figure appears which leads to new moods, and a big climax based on the second subject. This subsides into delicate fragments of veiled mysticism including a faint echo of the motto. What now follows is a condensed summary of the journey so far, with all the main themes up to the theme of bitter power, now with even more explicit terror. This time collapse is complete, and the motto emerges from the back desks of the strings - "it's there, but you can't tell where" said Elgar. But the motto does not have the last word - instead the movement slips away with echoes of what has gone before; a sad review of failed opportunities and an essence not yet grasped.

The scherzo is in a rapid 2/4 time and is based on a scurrying semiquaver pattern, followed soon by a cocky little march tune on violas. Both march and semiquaver pattern are hammered out fortissimo, and then a wistful tune appears which Elgar once described as "like something we hear down by the river". These themes are developed separately and together, firstly the march and the scurrying semiquavers and then the wistful theme, now very loud and not at all wistful. But then the music gradually unravels, as the semiquaver pattern slows to triplets, to quavers, and to crotchets, with echoes of the motto theme above, and echoes of the march below. Gradually peace descends, and in the most magical transformation, the adagio reveals itself. Amazingly, the beautiful main theme is note for note identical with the unravelled semiquavers from the scherzo - but how utterly different in emotional meaning. The second subject is even more glorious, with the most passionate yet tender love music Elgar wrote. And so this amazing creation winds on (Richter described it as "a real adagio such as Beethoven would have written") until coming to rest at last in utter peace.

The finale starts in groping mystery, back in D minor again, with a sinister muttered question based on the motto theme. There is a hint (from the back desks of strings again) that the answer is the motto itself, but once more a big allegro movement blows up, all energy, strife and struggle. Several times the question from the introduction is repeated, ever louder and more aggressive, but always the answer is simply to pile on more and more energy. Suddenly a "wrong note" C flat rings out, instantly the hurly burly stops, and a wonderful consoling tune rolls out (in E flat minor, just a semitone up from the D minor before). And more wonderfully, we hear without realising it that this tune is note for note identical with the D minor question : so the answer was contained in the question all the time, and we only had to shift our viewpoint by a semitone to see it! This glorious tune expands into the whole orchestra, with both harps adding ever richer ornamentation. This has brought us back to A flat (at last!) and now, when the orchestra repeats the original question one last time, the horns respond with a jubilant shout leading to the real answer - the motto theme in its full ecstatic glory surrounded by fireworks of string and wind decoration.

I am reminded of T.S.Eliot's words in his Four Quartets - "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time".