piano, in collaboration with the violinist Isabella Jaeger, wife of his close friend August Jaeger. At the same time, he made an arrangement for solo piano, and his publisher, Novello, also issued an arrangement of the whole concert overture for piano duet, made by Adolf Schmid. Critical reception The initial reception of In the South was generally enthusiastic. After the premiere The Musical Times found the themes "subjected to elaborate and remarkably individual treatment", the scoring "superb", and the whole piece "perhaps the most beautiful orchestral work which the composer has given to the world". The Monthly Musical Record called the piece "as brilliant and inspiring a piece of writing as anything that Dr Elgar has produced". More recent analyses have expressed reservations about the length and structure of the piece. In Kennedy's view, the term "overture" would lead performers and audiences to expect a work shorter than the 20 minutes taken by In the South. Jerrold Northrop Moore judges the piece to have symphonic aspirations – "the wish for the Symphony still unachieved" and Percy Young similarly comments on an overextended structural design. Julian Rushton finds the profusion of themes and their development lacking the concision that gives Elgar's earlier concert overture Cockaigne "its crisp authority", and in his view the composer's scenic approach undermines the unity of the overture: "its parts are greater than the whole, for it is not ideally connected". Performances and recordings In the South is less often heard in the concert hall than many of Elgar's other major orchestral works. Remarking on the fact, The Musical Times speculated in 1973, "Why has Elgar's In the South failed to catch on even with today's enthusiasm for his music? The subtitle 'Alassio' and the modest description 'concert overture' for what is virtually a tone-poem may have proved discouraging or confusing – unfortunately, in the early stages of appreciation, titles do matter." The work is well represented on record, with recordings from every decade since the 1920s: Notes, references and sources Notes References Sources External links Faith Court Orchestra Subiaco, Perth, Australia, 2009 Compositions by Edward Elgar Concert overtures 1904 compositions Compositions in E-flat major