ABSTRACT
Edward Elgar established a productive relationship with most of the watchmen of his era. Elgar's management of the press began with his first choral festival premiere, the overture Froissart. The Morning Post was in no doubt that Elgar was a 'local musician of considerable talent', with an ability which 'with more experience, will place the composer high among the ranks of native musicians'. Yet the Musical Times's portrait stressed Elgar's ordinariness and his reliance on 'his own resources and making the most of his self-made opportunities'. Elgar had indeed passed 'his Rubicon' having transformed himself from 'local musician' to England's laureate of music and 'man of the hour' — as he was soon to be hailed by the Strand Magazine. The Morning Post, dedicating a column to Caractacus, summed up the work's importance in giving the composer a new national profile: Mr Elgar has passed the Rubicon.
