THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.

April 9 [1931]

Dear Gustav

‘Job’ is safely here – Vally is a treasure – I thought her Pfte version marvellously like the real thing¹ –
I wish that you could be basking in the sun with Ralph for this is what he said he was doing yesterday²  – However I am happy to think that ‘our medical man’ has done well for you – Yes – she is very modern – I doubt if she will ever get a ‘practice’.³
Every good wish for the Talkie – please see that it comes to Dorking.
Love from

AVW

Thank you for that lovely picture of the arch at Jumièges.⁴

1. Vally Lasker had made a pianoforte reduction of the score of VW’s ballet Job, Catalogue of Works 1930/5, for rehearsal purposes which perhaps she had sent to VW through Gustav Holst.
2. It is not clear where VW was at this time.
3. The VWs’ doctor, Margaret ‘Pegs’ Ritchie. See R.V.W.: a biography, p.173.
4. Gustav Holst had been walking in the region of Rouen – see Michael Short, Gustav Holst, the man and his music, p.297.