THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

From R. Vaughan Williams,
The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.

March 9 [1944]

Dear Adrian

I sh^d like to come to Bedford very much – But 10.0 on 22^nd is impossible from here – However I could manage 2.30 on 21^st – But if this is not quite convenient to you  – you know I shall absolutely trust you & your orchestra.¹
I have thanked you for the Sibelius letter – very nice of the old boy & I was much touched.²
Yrs

RVW

1. Boult had written to VW on 6th March: ‘I do not know whether you know that we are doing the D major Symphony on March 22nd, rehearsing in the morning at 10 or possibly the day before.  I hate to suggest that you should undertake such a journey, but if you care to come and put us right about everything it would be very nice.  If 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday, 21st, would be an easier time for you we will play it to you then, but if you are not able to come I should be most grateful if you would listen to the broadcast and criticize it in detail afterwards.  You see I have had nothing to do with the Symphony yet, except the preliminary rehearsal and listening to the Prom broadcast [on 24th June 1943].’ Boult conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the fifth symphony in the Corn Exchange, Bedford, on the evening of 22 March (open to the public and advertised in the Bedfordshire Times). The concert was broadcast from this location, described in the Radio Times as “from a concert-hall in the South”. Boult and the BBC Symphony Orchestra also performed the work in Colston Hall, Bristol, on 17 March.
2. See VWL1865.