Sonata in G op.28, i. Allegro Maestoso (1895)

This wonderful Sonata has kept me busy for months! It has been a real pleasure to get to know it as each movement has been recorded. I was most influenced by recordings of the Gordon Jacob transcription for orchestra (1946), which I found totally thrilling and utterly convincing. Playing the organ version now feels like playing a transcription of an original orchestral piece! Of course, Elgar was flexing his symphonic muscles in readiness for his work on op.55, to appear thirteen years later.