THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

13 Cheyne Walk
SW3

30/6/22

Dear Sirs

In reply to your letter of June 12^th I shall be happy to conduct one of my works at Margate¹ Sept. next. My fee w^d be £5.5.0 and expenses.

Yrs faithfully

R. Vaughan Williams

1. VW conducted A London Symphony at the Margate Musical Festival, held at
the Pavilion and Winter Gardens on 27 September 1922. The Festival’s Musical Director was Mr
Bainbridge Robinson, possibly the recipient of this letter. See Thanet Advertiser, Saturday 30
September 1922, p. 8: ‘Margate’s musical festival at the Pavilion and Winter Gardens this week has again given a flourish to the finish of the summer or – to be more optimistic – the start of the autumn season. That the spade work of Mr. Bainbridge Robinson, the musical director, and those associated with him in the musical education of Thanet, is appreciated, has been evidenced by the
numbers of people who have attended each performance throughout the festival. …
The most absorbing musical programme of the festival was reserved for the symphony
concert on Wednesday [27 September 1922]. The chief piece was the London Symphony conducted by the composer Dr. Vaughan Williams. A vivid descriptive work – though the admirably compiled souvenir programme exhorted us not to regard it as such – graphically visualised the sights and sounds of the city, with its noise and calm.’