An engagement as conductor of the Glasgow Choral Union concerts which Bülow had unexpectedly accepted brought us closer together in the winter of 1877. When the orchestra visited Edinburgh every week I was under orders to join him at meals before and after each performance. An exciting time was provided for all concerned, as these exceptionally brilliant efforts were wrung from an orchestra unaccustomed either to the strict discipline or the exacting demands made by a conductor whose sarcastic sallies spared none. The scenes enacted at rehearsals verged on the grotesque; but the redoubtable Hans, however sever with others, had no mercy on his own nervous energy, and lived in a perpetual state of excitement which few men could have endured without serious consequences. << less