TRUE HISTORY

MUSICAL TIME-LINE TO THE REQUIEM
EXTRACTS FROM GUY NICOLSON'S LETTERS, 1943-1945

25th October 1943. Performances of 'Salut d'Amour', Elgar; 'Le Cygne,' St.Saens; 'Romance', Drdla; 'Poeme', Fibich. Each piece arranged, rehearsed and performed by Guy with Orchestra and Choir, with every note of violin and piano accompaniment scored out from memory.

6th December 1943. Quartet sings 'Madrigal' and 'Tower Tomb' - Gilbert and Sullivan.

24th December 1943. Carols sung - including 'In the Bleak Midwinter' and 4 chorales Guy wrote for the occasion.

30th December 1943: "Am trying hard to get G & S operas & the Brahms Requiem" 10th February1944. 4 items from G. and S. plus 4 others -all scored out from memory.

17th February 1944. 'Spring Sonata', Beethoven Sonata in F.

1st March 1944: "You may remember my great desire one day to conduct the Brahms Requiem." 6th March 1944. Mendelssohn Violin Concerto - Guy the soloist, piano accompaniment.

27th March 1944: "– we start work with choir & orchestra next Sunday on the Brahms Requiem."

6th April 1944: "We have made a start on the Requiem – choir & orchestra. After the first rehearsal I thought the choir would kill me if I went on with it – now it is just the reverse! It has been a great labour scoring out orchestral parts from the piano score – but well worth the trouble."

30th April 1944. Choir plus orchestra. 'Nell Gwynne Dances'.

28th June 1944. One of a series of regular orchestral concerts, called Musical Patchworks, ranging from popular ballads to Peer Gynt Suite, Schumann's 'Traumerei', Kreisler's 'Liebeslied', Nell Gynne again and 'Jealousy' (very popular with the men).

28th August 1944. First performance of 'The Gondoliers'. A 'great success'.

11th September 1944: "The choir is on holiday at the moment, but resumes work on the “Requiem” next week." Music from 'Bitter Sweet'.

9th October 1944. St.Saens' 'Havanaise'; Macdowell's 'To a Wild Rose', 'Csardas' by Monti and 'Serenata' by Drdla. Also, in rehearsal, is Grieg's Suite for Violin and Piano in G minor, orchestrated by Guy.

21st November 1944. Mendelssohn Violin Concerto - Guy as soloist, this time with orchestral accompaniment. 28th November 1944. Irish Dances by Ansell; Overture to 'The Magic Flute', Mozart.

7th December 1944: "I am going to put on Nos. 1 – 2 – 4 – 5 from the Brahms Requiem with full choir & orchestra."

31st December 1944: "We have a great deal of music including the Mozart symphony no. 40 & the Brahms Requiem which will be performed in the fairly near future.”

January 1945. No.s 1,2,4,5 from the Brahms Requiem. Mozart's Symphony No.40

8th March 1945: Performance of No.s 1,2,4,5 Brahms's Deutsche Requiem with full choir & orchestra. Another performance was actually started on Sunday 18th March 1944 but was aborted and the prisoners were moved out of Hadamar that night by truck at one A.M