on 10 April. All immediate engagements were cancelled; among these was a planned series of performances of The Rape of Lucretia by the English Opera Group, scheduled as part of the 1951 Festival of Britain. Later career Failing health Ferrier resumed her career on 19 June 1951, in the Mass in B minor at the Royal Albert Hall. She then made her usual visit to the Holland Festival, where she gave four performances of Orfeo, and sang in Mahler's Second Symphony with Otto Klemperer and the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Through the summer her concert schedule was interspersed with hospital visits; however, she was well enough to sing at the Edinburgh Festival in September, where she performed two recitals with Walter and sang Chausson's Poème with Barbirolli and the Hallé. In November she sang Land of Hope and Glory at the reopening of Manchester's Free Trade Hall, a climax to the evening which, wrote Barbirolli, "moved everyone, not least the conductor, to tears". After this, Ferrier rested for two months while she underwent radiation therapy; her only work engagement during December was a three-day recording session of folk songs at the Decca studios. In January 1952 Ferrier joined Britten and Pears in a short series of concerts to raise funds for Britten's English Opera Group, including the premiere of Britten's Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac. Writing later, Britten recalled this tour as "perhaps the loveliest of all" of his artistic associations with Ferrier. Despite continuing health problems, she sang in Bach's St Matthew Passion at the Royal Albert Hall on 30 March, Messiah at the Free Trade Hall on 13 April, and Das Lied von der Erde with Barbirolli and the Hallé on 23 and 24 April. On 30 April Ferrier attended a private party at which the new Queen, Elizabeth II, and her sister, Princess Margaret, were present. In her diary, Ferrier notes: "Princess M sang—very good!". Her health continued to deteriorate; she refused to consider a course of androgen injections, believing that this treatment would destroy the quality of her voice. In May she travelled to Vienna to record Das Lied and Mahler's Rückert-Lieder with Walter and the Vienna Philharmonic; singer and conductor had long sought to preserve their partnership on disc. Despite considerable suffering, Ferrier completed the recording sessions between 15 and 20 May. During the remainder of 1952 Ferrier attended her seventh successive Edinburgh Festival, singing in performances