The Boosey & Hawkes Concerts

Extract

The first of the Boosey & Hawkes concerts was given at Wigmore Hall in October 1941, when the war situation looked gloomy indeed. The programme included songs by de Falla, Szymanowski and Rawsthorne; Debussy's Trio for flute, viola and harp; a Honegger Quartet, and two quite new works: Vaughan Williams' Household Music for string quartet and Bernard Stevens' Theme and Variations for piano. Altogether a rather doubtful venture, one might well have thought. Yet, as it transpired, the artists appeared pleased to be playing something new, the audience was large and manifestly enthusiastic, and the event, widely reported, was described in The Times as “the most interesting programme presented in London since the outbreak of war.” There could be little doubt, then, that the organizing committee had after all gauged the needs of an important section of the London musical public, and that they would be justified in proceeding with other concerts based on the same policy.