when, at the age of 82 and now a stooping oak-like figure, [RVW] conducted the first performance of his Christmas cantata Hodie. ‘Far too difficult’, he told me afterwards, but no-one else has quite captured its essence as he did. Gerald Finzi was there that day, another much-missed figure, whose Dies natalis belongs to the walls of the three cathedrals as potently as any of Elgar's works, and ‘John’ (Herbert) Sumsion, whose recent death [in 1995] severed the last significant musical link with Elgar. At that period Sumsion, David Willcocks and Melville Cook were a triumvirate easily the equal of their predecessors and successors. They laid the foundations of the modern festivals while preserving the hallowed traditions.

William Walton was never a Three Choirs composer, although his Viola Concerto, first performed in 1929, was included in the Worcester programme in 1932 and was hated by Elgar. For some extraordinary reason, Belshazzar's Feast was not admitted into the cathedrals until 1957, 26 years after its sensational Leeds premiere.