Volume 2-The three pieces that form op 4 Idylle Pastourelle and Virelai were published in 1883 with French titles to add glamour and appeal. All three works feature long attractive melodies with well-developed accompaniments. The pair that form op 13 Mot d’Amour and Bizarrerie are more contrasting in nature. Mot d’Amour was composed to pair with Salut d’Amour but was the less appealing of the two while Bizarrerie has distinct Spanish elements and is suggested by the editor Barry Collett as a fine encore piece.Violin was of course Elgar’s own instrument and the writing is idiomatic and sensitively created for the instrument.
