It was a great honour for me to bring out the Delius Concerto in America but unfortunately, although other items in my programme were very successful, the Concerto was not. The Philadelphia Orchestra was very good to me but alas, Stokowski, their conductor who loved Delius’s work, was away. Fritz Reiner conducted for me and he could not bear nor understand Delius’s music. If I had played Dvorak with him all would have been well, as he loved it. Neither Delius nor I had any idea that he would be conducting; it was such a shame. Delius had so longed for his Concerto to understand the idiom of Delius and although I hope it did not sound difficult, so many passages written for the cello would have sounded perfect on the woodwind. If neither Press nor conductor grasped it, the orchestra loved the work and when the Philadelphia Orchestra came over to London many years later with Ormandy, it was a great pleasure to find that many members, including the first violin and oboe, remembered the Delius with delight. << less