Sir Edward Elgar - Dream Children. Sophie Gengembre Anderson - Paintings.

Elgar wrote these two short pieces for small orchestra or piano in 1902. They are played here on piano by Peter Pettinger.
The pieces are inspired by "Dream-Children; A Reverie", one of the Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb published in 1822, wherein the author
imagines telling his children, Alice and John, some tales of their great-grandmother and, also, of his own courtship, (in hope and eventual despair), for another Alice. The essay ends mysteriously :-
* * And while I stood gazing, both the children gradually grew fainter
to my view, receding, and still receding till nothing at last but two mourn-
ful features were seen in the uttermost distance, which, without speech,
strangely impressed upon me the effects of speech : "We are not of Alice,
nor of thee, nor are we children at all. * * * * We are nothing; less than
nothing, and dreams. We are only what might have been."
The paintings are by the French-born British artist, Sophie Gengembre Anderson.