THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates,
Dorking.

March 19 [1944]

Dear Mr Herbage¹

I believe Sir H.J.W.²  wants to do my oboe concerto³ – I offered it him last year & he preferred the symphony – then I suggested it to W. Legge – but Sir H.J.W. then said that if there was nothing else he w^d like to do it after all.
I have explained all this to Legge
I fear my “Flemish Farm” Suite will not be ready in time
Yrs sincerely

R Vaughan Williams

1. Assistant Director of Music at the BBC.
2. Sir Henry J. Wood, director of the Promenade concert series.
3. Catalogue of Works 1944/1.
4. Herbage had written on 15th March:  ‘I hear from Sir Henry Wood that you have offered the first performance of your new Concerto for Oboe and Strings for the Jubilee season of Promenade concerts.  I would be most grateful for your confirmation of this because I have also heard that Walter Legge is anxious to secure the first performance of this work for an ENSA [Entertainments National Services Association] concert. Sir Henry also mentioned that you might be writing a further work for the Jubilee Promenade concerts, and if this is so it is indeed good news and I would be most grateful to hear about it [this was the suite from the film music for Flemish Farm]. I am hoping to get down to a complete draft of the programmes within the next week or so, and therefore will be most glad to hear whether we can expect [?] one or both of these new works from you.’