THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates
Dorking

Oct 13 [1942]

Dear Gerald

The apple was much admired both for appearance, magnitude and taste – it fed 5000 & there are some broken pieces left.
Thank you very much for the Garlands¹ – I wish I could hear them on Sunday (perhaps I shall) – I feel certain about Fidele & Mistress mine – fairly sure of Come away and Greenwood Tree – not yet about Sylvia – but I shall go through her quietly. I feel very unhappy about the 6tet² – it sounded dreary & muddled – partly the room because I didn’t feel that when I heard it rehearsed in a small room. But the more I hear my own stuff the more I dislike it – where I shall be at the end of the week I don’t know – & I shan’t have the courage not to listen.
My love to Joyce
Yrs

RVW

1. Let us garlands bring, op.18, dedicated to VW, first performed the day before at the National Gallery. See VWL1701.
2. The Double String Trio, Catalogue of Works, 1938/3. The first performance of the revised version had been given at the same concert by the Menges Sextet. Howard Ferguson, who was present bears out VW’s concern. The work was withdrawn and eventually re-written as the Partita for Double String Orchestra. See Kennedy, Catalogue of Works, p.163.