Symphony No. 2 (Elgar) Elgar is widely acknowledged as one of England's leading composers, his orchestral music, with the exception of the "Enigma Variations", the Cello Concerto, and his "Pomp and Circumstance" Marches, is only sporadically programmed outside Britain. The symphony was first recorded complete in 1927 by His Master's Voice, part of the EMI group, conducted by the composer. This recording was later reissued on LP and later on CD. There was no further recording for eighteen years, until Sir Adrian Boult and the BBC Symphony Orchestra made a recordings of the symphony in 1944. Since then there have been more than twenty-four
Dirck Gerritsz Pomp Dirck Gerritsz Pomp Dirck Gerritszoon Pomp, alias Dirck China (1544 – c. 1608), was a Dutch sailor of the 16th–17th century, and the first known Dutchman to visit China and Japan. Pomp was born in Enkhuizen in The Netherlands to Gerrits and his wife. As a youth, he was sent in 1555 to Lisbon to live with relatives who were traders, to learn Portuguese and train as merchant. In 1568 at the age of 22, Pomp established himself as a merchant on the isle of Goa off the coast of India. From there, he visited China and Japan aboard Portuguese