Entirely self-taught as a composer, though with youthful aspirations to a career as a violin virtuoso, Elgar was always sensitive about his lack of education, in common with some other composers. It led to strange, sometimes boorish behaviour on occasions, and the Enigma Variations may indeed have been a retreat into the comfortable world of his ‘friends pictured within’ as the dedication tells us. This day will be an examination of his extraordinary achievement together with hark-backs to earlier years in the Wand of Youth, Nursery Suite, Severn Suite and pieces written in his youth for the local mental hospital. All-comers welcome.