... and went to Buffet's to order myself a new E flat clarinet. I was supposed to play the E flat clarinet in Britten's "Sea Interludes" but my good instrument had been stolen from the Albert Hall a couple of years earlier and the American replacement which was all I could get in war-time as terrible. I was forced to transpose the part on my C clarinet so it seemed the right moment to order a good instrument. The currency problem was solved by the kindness of Charles Münch who paid for it in francs which I would reimburse in pounds on his next visit to England. When it was ready the clarinet was smuggled over in the diplomatic bag; I had to collect it from the Arts Council and be rebuked by John Denison. We gave our Paris concerts in the Théâtre des Champs Élysées, Münch conducting the last one; the place was packed and everything was received with wild enthusiasm, even the Britten "Sear Interludes" from "Peter Grimes" which were probably not much to the French taste and which Beecham did not know and had not wanted to conduct - rudely referring to the "Bugger's Opera" in a Press conference - but he was eventually over-persuaded by the directors. << less