Signed program book: Birmingham Musical Festival in Aid of the Funds of the General Hospital, October 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th, 1900. Fortieth Celebration. Birmingham: Hall and English, 1990. Softcover with colored cloth spine, 7.5 x 9.25. Signed inside on an opening page in fountain pen by Edward Elgar, with a total of 15 others who took part in the festival signing inside in black ink or fountain pen, including: Hans Richter, Hubert Parry, Edward Lloyd, Harry Plunkett Green, Marie Brema, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Clara Butt (Kennerley Rumford), Emma Albani, Evangeline Florence, David Bispham, Ada Crossley, Esther Palliser, William Green, Andrew Black, and Ben Davies. In very good to fine condition, with professional repairs to the covers, spine, and hinges; inner pages are fine. Accompanied by a custom-made dust jacket. The 1900 Birmingham Festival is perhaps best known as the venue for the premiere of Elgar's masterpiece The Dream of Gerontius, Op. 38. The performance took place on October 3, 1900, in Birmingham Town Hall and, by all accounts, was performed badly, with Elgar leaving Birmingham immediately upon its conclusion. Subsequent performances in Germany would later reveal its true stature and excellence.
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