Dearest Dave,

Thank you very much or your letter. It was good to find it waiting here for my return, and to know that you have been able to get home at Christmas after all.

AbouttheBachConcerto:Iwouldquitehonestlysoonernotdoitat Wokingham on 1 April - though the date is almost irresistible. There are two reasons, the lesser being that it is difficult for me to get away on week- nights, and the greater, that while I would be amused to come and play the work one Sunday in the charming obscurity of one of your local churches, I would hesitate to do so anywhere more public, never to mention an occasion that calls itself a Festival Concert. Sorry to be tiresome, but there it is. The Concerto is difficult and would need a lot of work to play really well; and I have not enough time for that - more especially as I begin to feel that I may have been wrong in imagining that I could write nothing more while the war lasted. We [H.F. and the Griller Quartet at R.A.F. stations] had a very pleasant timein Ireland, though the pianos were of an even lower standard than usual (and that's saying some!). I feel much refreshed after the change. Tomorrow the Orchestra, with me in tow, go off on a ten days’ tour of Army Co-Operation Units in the Andover district. It doesn't sound so far away from Ashmansworth, does it? What fun if it were possible for me to run over sometime. Unfortunately

I don't know our address yet; but if there's any chance I'll phone up.

For your information, the Grillers are repeating the Bloch Quartet at the Gallery on Friday 23rd. And are giving the 1st performance of Arthur's new Quartet1there sometime in March (the 12th I think). I have had a go at the score of the latter, and have heard them play bits of it; both methods of enquiry lead me to the painful conclusion that the work is disappointing and nothing like so good as, say, the Clarinet Quintet. Sad. They are also going to play a new Britten quartetat a Boosey & Hawkes concert, but I have not yet seen that.