Elgar’s Salut d’amour (1888) is an example of a piece that underwent changes from its inception to its publication. Originally entitled Liebesgruss (Love's Greeting), the piece was dedicated to Elgar’s future wife, Caroline Alice Roberts. The arrangement of the piece was for violin and piano in the key of E major. The first publisher of the piece, Schott, changed the German title Liebesgruss to the French title Salut d’amour to appeal to a broader European demographic. Elgar later arranged for the piece for solo piano, cello and piano, and small orchestra. Because of the popularity of the original violin and piano version, the publishers asked Elgar if he could transpose the piece into a more manageable key to make the music more accessible.
One of the D major Liebesgruss arrangements is identical to its E major predecessor, but the other version is an even simpler version of the E major version, with the violin harmonic section being removed and replaced with a simple melodic line. The piece’s metamorphosis from one version to countless others appears to not be significant, as I have seen many of the recordings of professionals playing the D major or E major version, their choice certainly not being influenced by the the difficulty of playing the piece in a certain key. But that does not seem to be the case for everyone. Apart from the transposition from E major to D major that Elgar himself applied to the piece, I’m pretty sure that I have heard versions in C major and G major as well.
But does it really matter? The key of the piece seems to be an insignificant difference in the grand scheme of the music making. But I think that a small detail like the key does affect how the music is portrayed. E major on the violin (in my opinion) is quite a more volatile key than most, despite it only having four sharps. Its dominant note is B natural, which is a little off putting, especially in a tonal world where C major is coveted and where B functions as the most unstable pitch of that scale.
I also believe that the any interpretation of the Salut d’amour has to embrace the character that is associated with E major. The piece lends itself to such a Romantic style that it’s nauseating, but if it is not played in such an emotionally saturated manner, it becomes passive. That is my only criticism of the Salut d’amour in the key of D major. The choice of the E major key characterizes the piece as quick to express a varying range of emotion in a whimsical manner, while an interpretation in D major takes the risk of dwelling in a state of reflection and passiveness, acknowledging the greeting of love, but not letting it take you away as in the E major rendition does.
As much as I enjoy Itzhak Perlman’s and James Ehnes’ version of the Salut d’amour, my favourite interpretation of the piece is by Sarah Chang, mostly because she plays the E major version while the others play the D major version. I think it might have been the key change that changed Elgar’s piece from an emotional performance piece to a slightly more passive parlour piece. However, that is just my personal opinion, as I do really like the playing styles of Ehnes and Perlman when it comes to Romantic violin music. Here are some videos of the interpretations of the piece mentioned above by Perman, Ehnes and Chang so you can hear Elgar’s piece for yourself:
Ehnes:
Perlman:
Chang:
