Siegfried Wagner came twice to London. In the autumn of 1894 he challenged criticism as a conductor only, and was “let off” pretty lightly. He  wielded the baton with his left hand, but his beat  was firm and distinct, and his readings, if colorless, were intelligent and clear. In the summer of 1895 he appeared as a composer, and presented to  the world, for the first time, a symphonic poem written after Schiller's “Sehnsucht. "This work revealed promise, but it was “the promise of the  child who tries to run before he can walk, the prematurely exposed talent of the artist who represents on canvas some great problem of human life  before he has mastered the art of mixing his colors." At the same concert he gave a practical  demonstration of his father's ideas concerning the interpretation of Beethoven's “little” symphony in  F. On the other hand, his reading of the “Der Freischutz” overture was “simply remarkable for  wilful eccentricity and a flagrant disregard for the  obvious intentions of the composer."