Thirty Years of Musical Life in London, 1870-1900

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

408-9

text excerpt

The name of Anton Seidl may perhaps be missed from the group of leading German conductors enumerated above. As a matter of fact, however, Seidl scarcely had an opportunity of displaying his powers in London as a concert conductor. His appearances there were solely in connection with opera— the “Nibelungen " performances at Her Majesty's in 1882, and the German representations at Covent Garden in 1897. In the course of the latter I saw him frequently, and one night he accompanied me to a Richter concert at St. James's Hall. He had not seen his great Viennese rival upon the platform for many years, and was especially curious to hear his rendering of Tschaikowsky's “Pathetique " symphony. He was delighted with every feature save one. Directly after starting the second (5-4) movement, Richter laid down his baton and allowed the band to proceed without guidance to the end of the piece. Seidl knit his brows and looked stern, but did not utter a word till the room was ringing with applause. Then he turned to me and said: ''I wish he had not done that. It was to show that, in spite of the awkward rhythm, his men could keep perfectly together without the beat, and maintain the necessary precision all through the movement. So they did; but the result was a very machine-like performance. It was much less crisp and animated than it would have been if Richter had conducted it with his arm as well as with his eyes!'

excerpt from 'Thirty Years of Musical Life in London, 1870-1900' pp. 408-9 (251 words)

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