THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

Imperial Hotel
Hereford

September 9th [1952]

Dear Frank,

I wrote to Hochhauser about the Concerto & here is his answer.
In his former letter to me he said he had made every possible enquiry to find if the work had been done before.  To which I replied that if he had applied to the O.U.P. he would have been told about it. What I really mind is about Jelly. By the way, he ought to have guessed that from the printed dedication to her that she had played it in public.
Besides the performance in 1925 at the Aeolian Hall, unless my memory fails me, [she] played it under me at Queen’s Hall a few years later.¹
I hope you heard Larry the other night?  He was splendid.
Yours sincerely,

R. Vaughan Williams

1. In the handbill for Menuhin’s 1952 performance of the Violin Concerto (Concerto Accademico), Victor Hochhauser, the concert promoter, had announced it as the ‘first public performance in London’. In fact the concerto was dedicated to Jelly d’Aranyi and she had given the first performance on 6th November 1925, as VW states, at the Aeolian Hall. See Catalogue of Works 1925/7. She was  not now playing very much (see note to VWL1909 – a request from VW to Henry Wood to consider giving her an engagement at the Promenade Concerts in 1944), and VW was obviously concerned that her feelings would be hurt by this announcement.
2. Larry Adler had given the first London performance of VW’s Romance in D flat for Harmonica and strings at the Albert Hall on 6th September. See Catalogue of Works 1951/4.