THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult

Letter No. VWL3571

Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Adrian Boult

Letter No.: VWL3571


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

Oct 1st 1957

Dear Adrian,

This is most sad for all of us & especially for Ursula and me – Do take care of yourself – & I shall have fragrant memories of early rehearsals of Pastoral1 – when you were so wonderful & C.V.S.2 came & rehearsed & was very kind but rather a nuisance – & told somebody afterwards that it was fluff (I think that was the word).
Did I ever tell you that C.V.S. took the RCM3 orchestra through it with many of the instruments away & the parts not yet checked & I very nearly withdrew it!
– and then there was Job –
B. Cameron4 is very very good and useful and has worked like a Trojan & has got hold of it all very well – but I did want you! 
All love to you both from us both
Ralph


1. This letter was written in response to a  letter from Boult telling VW that he could not conduct his  85th birthday concert because of illness. The programme included VW’s Pastoral Symphony and Job (together with the orchestral version of On Wenlock Edge)-  thus these particular reminiscences. See R.V.W.: a biography, p.383.
2. Charles Villiers Stanford
3. Royal College of Music
4. Basil Cameron