On his return to England in 1932, Rawsthorne took up a post as pianist and teacher at Dartington Hall in Devon, where he became composer-in-residence for the School of Dance and Mime . In 1934, Rawsthorne left for London to try his fortune as a freelance composer. His first real public success arrived four years later with a performance of his "Theme and Variations for Two Violins" at the 1938 International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) Festival in London. The next year, his large scale "Symphonic Studies" for orchestral was performed in Warsaw, again at the ISCM Festival. The first in a line of completely assured orchestral scores, the "Symphonic Studies", which can be heard as a concerto for orchestra in all but name, rapidly helped Rawsthorne establish himself as a composer possessing a highly distinctive musical voice (; ).