Nimrod

That was Eric Lesage and François Salquet playing the piano and the cello with Gabriel Fauré's After a Dream.

If there is one piece of music that prompted this episode called Longing, It is Nimrod from Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations.

There is for me an ache or a yearning or indeed a longing to this music.

And remember, as I said at the beginning of the show, we bring meanings to music that the composers often didn't intend.

The actual enigma from the title comes from Elgar's announcement that the main theme of the work was a counterpart to another theme and that he would not reveal what it was.

To this day what that theme is remains an enigma.

Who Nimrod was though was quite quickly established.

Nimrod is the name of an Old Testament hunter, and this is connected to Elgar's friend and colleague, August Jaeger.