" March No. 1 in D " is the best known of the set. It was completed, together with March No. 2, in 1901, soon after the first performance of his “Dream of Gerontius” which had been badly performed. Elgar dedicated it to Alfred Rodewald who conducted its first performance with the Liverpool Orchestra Society on 19 October 1901. Both marches were played two days later at a Promenade Concert in the Queen's Hall London, conducted by Henry Wood. Elgar knew that the audience would love the big tune in the middle of March No. 1, so that march was played second. Henry Wood tells in his autobiography that “the people simply rose and yelled. I had to play it again – with the same result; in fact, they refused to let me get on with the programme….merely to restore order, I played the march a third time.” 