No one expresses the grace of _Laendler_ and dainty
waltzes and mournful reveries better than he; and perhaps no one is
nearer the secret of Schubert's moving and voluptuous melancholy; and it
is Schubert he recalls at times, both in his good qualities and certain
of his faults. But he wants to be Beethoven or Wagner. And he is wrong;
for he lacks their balance and gigantic force. One saw that only too
well when he was conducting the _Choral Symphony_.
But whatever he may be, or whatever disappointment he may have brought
me at Strasburg, I will never allow myself to speak lightly or
scoffingly of him. I am confident that a musician with so lofty an aim
will one day create a work worthy of himself.
* * * * *
Richard Strauss is a complete contrast to Mahler. He has always the air
of a heedless and discontented child. Tall and slim, rather elegant and
supercilious, he seems to be of a more refined race than most other
German artists of to-day. Scornful, _blase_ with success, and very
exacting, his bearing towards other musicians has nothing of Mahler's
winning modesty. He is not less nervous than Mahler, and while he is
conducting the orchestra he seems to indulge in a frenzied dance which
follows the smallest details of his music--music that is as agitated as
limpid water into which a stone has been flung.
Pages:
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299