Alex C wrote:
states that Roy Douglas, who wrote out the full score of the concerto for the first performance, edited the Eulenberg Edition miniature score. Unless we find RVW's handwritten version, this might be as close to the intended composition as we can get. I'm buying the Eulenberg Edition score now.
We have a winner! Roy Douglas is the author/orchestrator/copyist. Here's some more from him:
"From 1944 until the death of Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1958," he writes, "I had the unforgettable experience of being his friend and musical assistant, helping him to prepare works for performance and publication, including his last four symphonies and the opera Pilgrim’s Progress. As Roy makes clear in his book Working with Vaughan Williams (British Library Publishing: 1988), the composer’s manuscripts were very difficult to read. A large part of his job was to provide accurate and legible copies, and to correct the numerous mistakes in the original scores. He also had to deal with the many changes made in rehearsal, and to correct proofs.
Vaughan Williams described this process as "washing the face" of his music, while Roy saw himself as a "musical midhusband" to the composer’s new-born works. For 30 years, from 1942 to 1972, he performed a similar service for William Walton, whose scores were not quite so difficult to read. But he, too, would frequently change his mind, often at the very last minute.
Read more:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/c ... z1DVau4ANl" target="_blank
Karl "who probably played this piece poorly for Alex C. back in the day" H.
