Part 10 (1/2)

CHAPTER XVII

SEGHERS

While Delsarte was preparing the way for the old French opera and above all for Gluck's works, another pioneer ofto form the taste of the Parisian public, but with an entirely different power and another effect Seghers was the reat role and his hers was a Belgian He started life as a violinist and was one of Baillot's pupils His execution was ence of the first order He had every right to a first rank a _virtuosi_, but this man, herculean in appearance and tenacious in his purposes, lost all his power before an audience

He had a drea to lovers of music the last of Beethoven's quartets, which were considered at the time both unplayable and incomprehensible In the end he planned a series of concerts at which, despite ular pianist He planned to give in addition to these quartets, some of Bach's sonatas and Reber's and Schumann's trios I spoke of this plan to hisat the , and told her how pleased I was at the thought of the concerts

”Don't count on it too ive the was ready, he invited some thirty people to listen to a trial perforone froers The project was abandoned

It was left for Maurin toout of these terrible quartets

Maurin had peculiar gifts He had a lightness of bohich I have never seen equalled by anyone and a lightness and charm which enchanted the public But I can say in all sincerity that Seghers's execution was even better Unfortunately for hihers was a wouished She had been one of Liszt's pupils and was a pianist of first rank But she was even le listener was sufficient to paralyze her When Liszt was teaching Madahers, he came to appreciate her husband's real worth and entrusted his daughter's musical education to him This is sufficient indication of the estee that he gave ard to style and the piano itself, for his friendshi+p with Liszt had given hi of the instruhers's house He had reappeared in Paris after long years of absence, and by that tiendary The story went that since he had becorand compositions, and, what appeared unbelievable, ”piano reatest pianist of his tied their shoulders at this As a cli systems of philosophy to music

I studied Liszt's works with all the enthusiasenius and attributed to him even before I saw him almost superhuman powers as a pianist Remarkable to relate he surpassed the conception I had forination were but prose in coers No one who did not hear hiht of his powers can have any idea of his perforhers was a member of the Societe des Concerts at the Conservatoire

This reached only a restricted public and there was no other symphony concert worthy of the name in Paris at the time And if the public was limited, the repertoire was even more so Haydn's, Mozart's and Beethoven's symphonies were played alreatest difficulty Only fragiven An author as still alive was looked upon as an intruder However, the conductor was permitted to introduce a solo of his own selection Thus hty, was perive--he still played beautifully--my first _concerto_ for the violoncello which I had written for him Deldevez, the conductor of the famous orchestra at the time, did not overlook the chance to tell h consideration for Tolbecque

Otherwise, he added, he would have preferred Messieurs So-and-so's

Not only did the Conservatoire audiences know little er public knew none at all The syreat classic h Czerny's arrangehers left the Societe des Concerts and founded the Societe St Cecile He led the orchestra himself The new society took its name from the St Cecile hall which was then in the Rue de la Chaussee d'Antin It was a large square hall and was excellent in spite of the prejudice in favor of halls with curved lines for music

Curved surfaces, as Cavaille-Coll, as an expert in this matter, once told es Halls used for ht lines The St Cecile hall was sufficiently large to allow a complete orchestra and chorus to be placed properly and heard as well

Seghers ed to assemble an excellent and sizable orchestra and he also secured soloists ere young then but who have since become celebrities The orchestra was poorly paid and also very unruly I have seen them rebel at the difficulties in Beethoven, and it was even worse when Seghers undertook to give Schumann as considered the _ne plus ultra_ of modernism Oftentimes there were real riots But we heard there for the first time the overture of _Manfred_, Mendelssohn's _Symphony in A minor_, and the overture to _Tannhauser_

The ere closed to them, but they elco thees Bizet and myself I made my first venture there with my _Symphony in E flat_ which I wrote when I was seventeen In order to get the cohers offered it as a symphony by an unknown author, which had been sent to him from Germany The committees sed the bait, and the sy if ned, was praised to the skies

I can still seeto a conversation between Berlioz and Gounod Both of thereatly interested in me, so that they spoke freely and discussed the excellences and faults of this anonyined how I drank in their words When the veil of reat ed to friendshi+p I received a letter from Gounod, which I have kept carefully, and as it does credit to the author, I take the liberty of reproducing it here:

My dear Camille:

I was officially informed yesterday that you are the author of the symphony which they played on Sunday I suspected it; but now that I am sure, I want to tell you at once how pleased I ith it

You are beyond your years; always keep on--and reated yourself to becoreat master

Your pleased and devoted friend,

CH GOUNOD

Many works which had been unknown to Parisian audiences were given at these concerts and nowhere else Aments of Weber's opera _Preciosa,_ his _Jubel overture_, and symphonies by Gade, Gouvy, Gounod, and Reber These sy They forolden chain, and the public has a right and even so them too, just as at the Louvre they like to see certain pictures which are not extraordinary but which are, nevertheless, worthy of the place they occupy That is to say, if the public is really guided by a love of art and seeks only intellectual pleasure instead of sensations and shocks So there is no es ofin emotion and which are beautiful nevertheless from the standpoint of pure esthetic beauty