Edward Elgar’s Salut d’amour is one of those pieces by the British composer that has a particularly haunting melody. Composed in 1888 for his future wife Caroline Alice Roberts, the work became an enormous success early on. Notes in the surviving autographs for the versions for Violin and Piano (HN 1188), Violoncello and Piano (HN 1189) and Piano solo show that Elgar had intended making arrangements for numerous scorings – but only the three named versions were authorised through original manuscripts. Amongst these the piano version has a special significance: Caroline Alice Roberts was a piano pupil of Elgar’s and thus the composer might have rewritten the original for violin and piano for his fiancée and later wife. Alongside the first print, we have also evaluated Elgar’s autograph engraver’s copy for the first time.
