THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

From R. Vaughan Williams,
10, Hanover Terrace,
Regents Park,
London, N.W.1.

April 8th 1958.

My dear Cedric,

Thank you so much for liking my new tune.¹
Sancta Civitas was a very good performance also – the only fault, as usual, was with the balance & control who continued their bad habit of making every thing into a harp concerto.  I like it the best of my own choral works.²
Thank you about your interpreter, but I’m afraid we cannot expect him to travel from Trieste to Ischia for us!³
Love from us both,
Yrs

RVW

Alan Frank will let Eric Greene have a copy of the Blake songs in plenty of time for the party.⁴

U.

1. The Ninth Symphony had been given its first performance by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Malcolm Sargent on 2 April.
2. Sancta Civitas had been broadcast on Good Friday, 4 April. See R.V.W.: a biography, p.391.
3. The VWs were going to spend a month on Ischia as the guests of the Waltons.
4. Ten Blake Songs, Catalogue of Works 1957/5, written for the film The vision of William Blake. The work was not performed publicly until October 1958. The party, not mentioned in R.V.W.: a biography, would have been at Dorking connected with the Leith Hill Musical Festival.