The orchestra and its instruments . of BeethovensEighth Symphony, the admirable Allegretto in B-flat,not going at first to his liking, he remarked, smilinglythat he knew every one of the gentlemen engagedwas capable of performing and even composing ascherzo of his own, but that just now he wanted to hearBeethovens, which he thought had some merits. Itwas cheerfully repeated. Beautiful! Charming! criedMendelssohn, but still too loud in two or three in-stances. Let us take it again from the middle. No,no, was the general reply of the band, the wholepiece over again, for our satisfaction; and the
The orchestra and its instruments . of BeethovensEighth Symphony, the admirable Allegretto in B-flat,not going at first to his liking, he remarked, smilinglythat he knew every one of the gentlemen engagedwas capable of performing and even composing ascherzo of his own, but that just now he wanted to hearBeethovens, which he thought had some merits. Itwas cheerfully repeated. Beautiful! Charming! criedMendelssohn, but still too loud in two or three in-stances. Let us take it again from the middle. No,no, was the general reply of the band, the wholepiece over again, for our satisfaction; and then theyplayed it with the utmost delicacy and finish, Men-delssohn laying aside his baton and listening withevident delight to the perfect execution. What wouldI have given, he exclaimed, if Beethoven could haveheard his own composition so well understood and somagnificently performed. Another admirer wrote: When once his fine, firmhand grasped the baton, the electric fire of Mendels-sohns nature seemed to stream out through it and. *:* i % i 11 \ MENDELSSOHNBy Bendemann THE ORCHESTRA 243 be felt at once by singers, orchestra and conducted not only with his baton, butwith his whole body. At the outset, when he tookhis place at the music-stand, his countenance waswrapped in deep and almost solemn earnestness. Youcould see at a glance that the temple of music was aholy place to him. As soon as he had given the firstbeat, his face lighted up, every feature was aflameand the play of countenance was the best commentaryon the piece. Often the spectator could anticipatefrom his face what was to come. The fortes andcrescendos he accompanied with an energetic play offeatures and the most forcible action; while thedecrescendos and pianos he used to modulate with amotion of both hands till they slowly sank to almostperfect silence. He glanced at the most distant per-formers when they should strike in, and often des-ignated the instant when they should pause, by acharac
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectmusicalinstruments
