It's coming home! Elgar collection of New Jersey businessman Arthur Reynolds donated to the Hallé

Piano Quintet. Manuscript dated January 21, 1919, of passages and queries about the work, consisting of questions from Elgar addressed to Harold Brooke [Jaeger’s successor at Novello], both as printer and as pianist. JNM's comment: “This half-sheet of music paper, filled on both sides, shows more clearly than anything known to me the working relationship between the two men, especially close over this work.”

New Jersey-based businessman and Chairman of the North American Branch of the Elgar Society (and regular visitor to the Three Choirs Festival), Arthur Reynolds built up his Elgar collection over six decades. Now the collection has a new home in Manchester. Reynolds has donated it to the Hallé in recognition of their historic connections with Elgar – the composer was friends with the Hallé’s second Principal Conductor Dr Hans Richter and the Hallé orchestra premiered Elgar’s Symphony No 1 in 1908 at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester.

The collection consists of some 1,500 items which were flown from New Jersey to London, then driven up to Manchester: the 3,500 mile journey funded by the National Heritage Memorial Fund. The National Heritage Memorial Fund awarded the Hallé nearly £105,000 to support the legal aspects of the donation and enable its transport to the UK – a vital piece in the puzzle to save the archive and prevent it from being split up (Arthur Reynolds was keen that the archive remained together in full and become publicly accessible).

The archive will be housed in the Hallé's current archive facilities in The Bridgewater Hall and will be available for the public to view, by appointment, Mr Reynolds' detailed catalogue will be added to the orchestra's online resources on the Connecting Manchester's Music Archives website, enabling everyone to explore what the archive holds. Some items from the collection will be included in future exhibitions and the Hallé aims to create a permanent new, fully accessible archive in the future.

Arthur Reynolds said: "Edward Elgar’s music offered me sensations of reverence to the United Kingdom. When I came to study there in the mid 1960s, I was surprised to find my admiration for Britain’s greatest composer unshared by my contemporaries whose interest in Elgar’s music had reached a nadir of negativity. One consequence was a neglect that threatened to consign Elgar memorabilia to an undeserved oblivion. I decided then and there to make it my life’s work to prevent the disappearance of material related to Elgar’s creative life. The result is the archive that has now reached its final resting place with Hallé."

Spanning autographed manuscripts, first-edition scores, correspondence with his contemporaries and personal items that reveal glimpses of Elgar’s everyday life, the collection offers an unrivalled insight into the world and work of one of the UK’s most celebrated composers. The archive also shows how Elgar was one of the first composers to embrace new sound recording technology – going on to play at the openings of both the first HMV retail store and what would later become Abbey Road Studios.

Further information from the Hallé website, and from the National Heritage Memorial Fund's website.