It was during the first world war that gut strings started to be phased out in favour of steel strings. The music in this series is often played by the excellent modern orchestras of our time, but we invite you to hear them a-fresh, as the composers would have heard them, reunited with the full colour of gut strings.

This series also marks the reunion of the OAE’s peerless string musicians after many months of separation due to the coronavirus. Recorded in autumn 2020, Max Mandel, Principal Viola, describes the choice of pieces as "the right time to sink into the elegiac worlds of Elgar’s Sospiri and Kelly’s Elegy. We are very aware of all that we have lost to the pandemic, and perhaps it helped us tap into what Elgar and Kelly were musically speaking to in their time.”

With thanks to our corporate sponsors Swan Turton, Duetz Champagne and Gramophone Magazine