THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

Tuesday [19th December 1950]

[Extract]

Belov Boo

[…]

We had a wonderful time with the Producer¹ – such a friendly cultivated man – about 50. He couldn’t have been more congenial to us all. I wish you could have seen him illustrating Apollyon with Ursula as the Pilgrim thrusting at her heart – it was to measure the timing of the thrusts to the music – Ursula was in her glory! and did it all very well.
The hitch is that he will refuse to produce unless he has his own designer and the management are undecided tho’ Steuart thinks it can be arranged.² They apparently want the designer to collaborate with their Costume designer – perhaps its financial –
[…]

Its 11 oc & R & Ursula have gone to attend the obsequies of Müller-Hartmanns. He had a stroke on Friday & was gone almost at once having been well up to that moment & at home – R will miss him – he had come to look upon him as a friend and value his musical opinions.³
[…]

Yrs

A

1. Nevill Coghill.
2. The designer was Hal Burton – not at all successful in UVW’s view.
3. VW wrote this for the Dorking Advertiser of 22 December: “In Robert Muller-Hartmann, Dorking has lost a distinguished citizen. He came over to England at the beginning of the Hitler menace, and made this country his home. Muller-Hartmann obtained an eminent reputation as a composer in Germany. This he was gradually regaining in England, but the process was slow as he neither desired nor tried for public success. He was content to compose for his own artistic satisfaction.
Muller-Hartmann had thought deeply about aesthetic problems, and his knowledge and appreciation of music, both old and new. was outstanding. He was a fine teacher, as his pupils (among whom I venture, informally, to count myself) will gladly admit. He was a constant attendant at all the musical doings in Dorking, and his notices of concerts above the initials ‘R.M.H’ in the Dorking Advertiser were conspicuous by their sound criticism and imaginative judgment.”