<p>Dedicated to 'my friends pictured within', Elgar&#39;s orchestral showpiece started life as a simple improvisation at the piano after a day of teaching violin in October of 1898. Upon playing the theme, his wife Alice asked that he repeat it. This led him to improvise variations on the melody - each variation a musical portrait of one of their friends. Elgar ultimately expanded this into a full-length compositon, including music portraits of Alice and himself before orchestrating it. The premiere was given on June 19, 1899 in London&#39;s St. James&#39;s Hall under the baton of Hans Richter. The work was popular immediately and has been part of the orchestral canon ever since. This new score is a digitally-restored reissue of the one first published in 1899 by Novello. In contrast to so many of the on-demand scores now available, this one comes with all the pages and the images have been thoroughly checked to make sure it is actually readable. As with all PLP scores a percentage of each sale is donated to the amazing online archive of free music scores and recordings, IMSLP - Petrucci Music Library.</p>