My clearest memory of the 1939 autumn concerts is of two performances of Weinberger's "Variations and Fugue on Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree." The composer has been inspired by a newsreel of George Vi singing and miming with a boys' summer camp; the work had great success in the States and Ralph Hawkes persuaded Beecham to do it. An organ pedal was required for one solitary note and I suggested to the Directors that I should have a shot at it. I had never played the organ in my life but the Queen's Hall organ had a crescendo pedal which did all the work for me. There was to be a second performance at Central Hall, Westminster but here the organ was entirely different and at rehearsal the wretched thing appeared to be taking over from me. As the noise got louder and louder Sir Thomas could be heart shouting: " Good Heavens! Mr. Savage has gone native, will someone stop him!" and Bill Coleman, the third trombone who had saved the day all those years ago when Felix White fell off the organ loft at Covent Garden, rushed up horror-struck to explain to me what I should do. I managed all right at the concert, became over-confident and tried it again when we recorded the piece later with Constant Lambert. My unrestrained decibels brought the recording engineer out of his booth like a jack-in-the-box, spitting with fury and crying: "Don't you know you should never use an open diapason in a recording session?" I didn't of course, but I do now and I have never tried to play the organ since that day. << less