Modern music and musicians : [Encyclopedic] . was on the point offainting. My neighbor pressed my hands in his to restrain me from utter-ing a cry. From that time my admiration for Berlioz knew no bounds,and I began to study his works, with which I had had but slight acquaint-ance, never having had an opportunity to hear them. The Parisians werenot at all pleased with them. The success of LEnfance du Christ was,however, very great, and this piece opened to Berlioz the doors of theFrench Academy, of which he became a member two years entered first. The very day of the electi
Modern music and musicians : [Encyclopedic] . was on the point offainting. My neighbor pressed my hands in his to restrain me from utter-ing a cry. From that time my admiration for Berlioz knew no bounds,and I began to study his works, with which I had had but slight acquaint-ance, never having had an opportunity to hear them. The Parisians werenot at all pleased with them. The success of LEnfance du Christ was,however, very great, and this piece opened to Berlioz the doors of theFrench Academy, of which he became a member two years entered first. The very day of the election of the author of La Promise, who was not yet the author of La Fanchonnette, I waswalking on the boulevard with the author of LEnfance du Christ andcertain earlier masterpieces. It was the moment when the balloting was HECTOR BERLIOZ 165 going on under the cupola of the Mazarin palace, and he was impatient toknow the result. But why? I said to him. At this very momentClapisson is being elected. You are a bird of ill omen, replied he, jump-. B1RTHPLACE OF 83 rue Nationale, La Cote-Saint-Andre. ing into a cab to go to the secretary of the Academy, hoping to get a little earlier account of—the triumph of his competitor. I was not mistaken. Toussaint Benet, whose name I have mentioned above, was a jovial 166 HECTOR BERLIOZ fellow from Marseilles, who, possessed of an ample fortune, had settled atParis to educate his son in music. Berlioz had recognized in the youngTheodore a remarkable precocity and exceptional talents, and had takengreat interest in him. He gave him the scores of the masters to read, andpointed out their beauties. Berlioz and I often met at the rooms of Tous-saint Benet. The child had grown up, and on his return from Germany,where he had been to take lessons from Liszt and the learned ProfessorSchnyder von Wartensee, he was already something more than a surpris-ing virtuoso; he was even a finished musician. What delightful eveningsI owe to him! Aft
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