THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

13 Cheyne Walk
Chelsea, S.W.

[Before 1928]

My Dear Barter

Many thanks for your letter and enclosure – I’ve at all events found out that I’m not a “fit & proper” person to conduct my own works – If ever you do me the honour of performing anything of mine again I shall come & listen.¹
Thank you & your choir once again from the bottom of my heart
Please thank your mother & brother as well as yourself for their most kind hospitality which made my visit such a pleasure.
Yrs very sincerely,

R. Vaughan Williams

1. This visit was probably the one referred to by VW in VWL2694, taking place a few years after the early performance in Bristol of the Sea Symphony when VW conducted the same work himself  ‘when I missed half a bar in conducting the finale of the Sea Symphony.  But your wonderful chorus pulled me through, and I think that only you, and they, know how near we were to disaster!’ He also alludes to the visit in  VWL3542. Must be probably after the war but before 1928 when they moved from Cheyne Walk.