Salut d’amour, Op.12

Originally scored for violin and piano, Salut d’amour (Love’s Greeting) was written for one of Elgar’s pupils Alice Roberts, whom he was hoping to marry. It was completed in July 1888 and proved to be so effective that they were engaged two months later. It proved to be highly effective too for Elgar’s publisher, who made a small fortune out of it while the composer, who unwisely sold all rights to the score, received no more than a few guineas for it. In Elgar’s own arrangement for small orchestra the amorous melodic line is carried mainly by first violins. After the short middle section a clarinet pleads for the return of the main them and the violins readily agree, to be joined this time by various woodwind who add their voices to the emotional climax of the piece

Originally a solo piano piece, Salut d’amour (Love’s Greeting) was written not for a violinist but for one of Elgar’s piano pupils Alice Roberts, whom he was hoping to marry. It was completed in July 1888 and proved to be so effective that they were engaged two months later. It proved to be highly effective too for Elgar’s publisher, who made a fortune out of it while the composer, who unwisely sold all rights to the score, received no more than a few guineas for it. Although Elgar himself did not make a version for violin and orchestra, he did approve an arrangement prepared for a recording he conducted with his violinist friend Billy Reed as soloist in 1929. Not that it matters very much, where a work of such irresistible melodic charm is concerned, what instrument plays it.