Violin Concerto in B minor, op. 61

The Royal Philharmonic Society commissioned the concerto in 1909, though Elgar had been circling the idea since 1890. On the title page he wrote in Spanish: here is enshrined the soul of….., with five dots instead of three, and then invited the guessing in a letter. The five points suggest Alice Stuart-Wortley, whom he called Windflower to distinguish her from his wife, though the soul may equally be his own. Fritz Kreisler played the premiere on 10 November 1910 with the composer conducting. Elgar was himself a violinist and treated the piece as a confession.