It sometimes happens that an artist dedicates his work not to one person, but to a whole collective. When Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov arrived for the first rehearsal of his Capriccio espagnol, the St Petersburg orchestra was said to have applauded him repeatedly. The touched composer decided to repay the ensemble with an equally spontaneous dedication of this famous Iberian-inspired piece.

Somewhat forgotten today, Saverio Mercadante was one of the most important figures in Italian opera of the nineteenth century. He created more than 60 works in the genre, winning praise from the likes of Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini. Mercadante, later director of the famous conservatory in Naples – a city vying for the title of one of Europe’s operatic capitals – also wrote a set of six concertos for flute, of which he himself was a virtuoso. Particularly popular with performers and listeners was the second of these works, in the key of E minor, preserved in versions for various forces, from chamber to symphonic. Full of technical acrobatics and representing a considerable challenge for the soloist, this work abounds in showstopping passages and phrases full of distant intervallic leaps, but does not shy away from bel canto operatic lyricism either.

Edward Elgar’s second and last completed Symphony, in E flat major, is among his most personal works. It was dedicated to the memory of the late king and the composer’s namesake, Edward VII, son of Queen Victoria. First performed in 1911, this late Romantic work is full of Elgar’s characteristic short, repeated motifs and attempts to cross the boundaries of tonality. The second movement is a poignant funeral march, an elegy perhaps related not only to the death of the sovereign, but probably also mourning the composer’s more personal losses – the passing of two close friends.