sical" rendering of
what is certainly not "classical" music. Hear that overture as Richter
gives it, and you will realise just where the Meiningen orchestra is
lacking. It has the kind of energy which is required to render
Beethoven's multitudinous energy, or the energy which can be heavy and
cloudy in Brahms, or like overpowering light in Bach, or, in Wagner
himself, an energy which works within known limits, as in the overture
to the "Meistersinger." But that wholly new, and somewhat feverish,
overwhelming quality which we find in the music of "Tristan" meets with
something less than the due response. It is a quality which people used
to say was not musical at all, a quality which does not appeal certainly
to the musical sense alone: for the rendering of that we must go to
Richter.

Otherwise, in that third concert it would he difficult to say whether
Schumann, Brahms, Mozart, or Beethoven was the better rendered. Perhaps
one might choose Mozart for pure pleasure. It was the "Serenade" for
wind instruments, and it seemed, played thus perfectly, the most
delightful music in the world. The music of Mozart is, no doubt, the
most beautiful music in the world. When I heard the serenade I thought
of Coventry Patmore's epithet, actually used, I think, about Mozart:
"glittering peace." Schumann, Brahms, Wagner, and Beethoven all seemed
for the moment to lose a little of their light under this pure and
tranquil and unwavering "glitter." I hope I shall never hear the
"Serenade" again, for I shall never hear it played as these particular
players played it.

The Meiningen orchestra is famous for its wind, and when, at the first
concert, I heard Beethoven's Rondino for wind instruments, it seemed to
me that I was hearing brass for the first time as I had imagined brass
ought to sound. Here was, not so much a new thing which one had never
thought possible, as that precise thing which one's ears had expected,
and waited for, and never heard. One quite miraculous thing these wind
players certainly did, in common, however, with the whole orchestra. And
that was to give an effect of distance, as if the sound came actually
from beyond the walls. I noticed it first in the overture to "Leonore,"
the first piece which they played; an unparalleled effect and one of
surprising beauty.

Another matter for which the Meiningen orchestra is famous is its
interpretation of the works of Brahms. At each concert some fine music
of Brahms was giv