Ravel. One should
be grateful for this. But such virtues are too negative to give the
Conservatoire a high place in the musical history of the Third Republic;
and it is only lately, under the direction of M. Gabriel Faure, that it
has endeavoured, not without difficulty, to get back its place at the
head of French art, which it had lost, and which others had taken.
The _Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire_, founded in 1828 under the
direction of Habeneck, has had its hour of glory in the musical history
of Paris. It was through this society that Beethoven's greatness was
revealed to France.[212] It was at the Conservatoire that the early
important works of Berlioz were first given: _La Fantastique_, _Harold_,
and _Romeo et Juliette_. It was there, nearer our own time, that
Saint-Saens's _Symphonie avec Orgue_ and Cesar Franck's _Symphonie_ were
played for the first time. But for a long time the Conservatoire seemed
to take its name too literally, and to restrict its sphere to that of a
museum for classical music.
[Footnote 212: It is to be noted that since 1807 the Conservatoire
pupils have made Beethoven's symphonies familiar to Parisians.
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