The Violin Sonata in E minor Op 82 was begun in mid-August 1918 and completed by 5 September. The next day, in his correspondence with Colvin, Elgar reported that W H (Billy) Reed, leader of the London Symphony Orchestra, had stayed at Brinkwells as the sonata took shape. ‘The first movement was written’, Reed later recalled; ‘he finished this while I was there … and the opening section of the finale. We used to play up to the blank page and then he would say “And then what?”—and we would go out to explore the wood or fish in the River Arun.  On 28 September Elgar informed Colvin that the Sonata was complete. Adrian Boult, a pupil of Nikisch, had just made his conducting debut and with typical enterprise he sought permission to present Elgar’s newest work before a gathering of the infant British Music Society. Instead, its first performance came at the composer’s London home, Severn House, Hampstead, on 15 October. Reed and pianist Anthony Bernard were the performers. The Reed/Bernard duo finally introduced the sonata at a BMS meeting on 13 March 1919 and the first ‘open’ presentation came a week later, on 21 March, this time with Reed and Sir Landon Ronald in the Aeolian Hall.