Impressions That Remained Memoirs

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The twenty Gewandhaus concerts were conducted one and all by Reinecke, and though in other towns the custom of playing excerpts from Wagner had been started, such a thing was taboo in those sacred walls. Not even the overtures of his operas were tolerated, and I remember an all but successful attempt to bar the Siegfried Idyll. This quite orthodox concert-piece was so ill-received, several of the permanent subscribers staying away to mark their indignation, that the experiment was not repeated. You could not call Reinecke an inspiring conductor, but at all events he let the music do its own business; there were no carefully thought-out effects, no rushings and dawdlings, no "Reinecke touches"; in short there was nothing between you and the thing itself, which is just the quality that moves one to the depths.

[…]

 What a curious place that old Gewandhaus was! Built, as its name "Cloth-Hall" indicates, for anything but music, and in defiance of all known laws of acoustics, its sonority was nevertheless perfect.

excerpt from 'Impressions That Remained Memoirs' pp. 146 (169 words)

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