THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.

[10 June 1934]

Dearest Harriet
Many thanks for the M.S.¹ – I had got the new cadenza etc – what I had not got were the small emendations we made in the figuration at various places – I have now done those by heart as best I can – I hope I’ve got them right!
Now I must be fair to the OUP² – I never said they were going to publish it but that I hoped they were going to publish it – a very different thing alas!
Now I also want to be fair to you both for the great admiration I have for you & your playing & for the splendid work you are doing for English music – Now how long do you think you ought to have the concerto before it is thrown open by publication or otherwise?  I don’t know in the least what is right to do.  I gave Jelly³ a 6 months run of my violin concerto – (not that she made much use of it).
How long did Kreisler keep the Elgar concerto?
Personally I don’t think any one else will ever want to play it because you and Arnold⁴ (and possibly myself) are the only 3 people who like it and as to students – I know you are far too generous to mind some student from Birmingham Midland Institute (such as wrote to me the other day) having it to study – I don’t think there was any question of public performance.
So dearest Harriet – let me know what you think
Yrs
RVW

1. Of VW’s Piano Concerto in C major
2. Oxford University Press
3. Jelly d’Aranyi, dedicatee and first exponent of the Violin Concerto in D minor, at this time still entitled Concerto Accademico.
4. Arnold Bax