The first man who attempted to make the symphony popular, M. Saint-Saens
tells us in his _Portraits et Souvenirs_, was Seghers, a dissentient
member of the _Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire_, who during
several years (1848-1854) was conductor of the _Societe de
Sainte-Cecile_, which had its quarters in a room in the rue de la
Chaussee d'Antin. There he had performed Mendelssohn's _Symphonie
Italienne_, the overtures to _Tannhaeuser_ and _Manfred_, Berlioz's
_Fuite en Egypte_, and Gounod's and Bizet's early, works. But lack of
money cut short his efforts.
Pasdeloup took up the work. After having been conductor for the _Societe
des jeunes artistes du Conservatoire_ since 1851, in the Salle Herz, he
founded, in 1861, at the Cirque d'Hiver, with the financial support of a
rich moneylender, the first _Concerts populaires de musique classique_.
Unhappily, says M. Saint-Saens, Pasdeloup, even up to 1870, made an
almost exclusive selection of German classical works. He raised an
impenetrable barrier before the young French school, and the only French
works he played were symphonies by Gounod and Gouvy, and the overtures
of _Les Francs-Juges_ and _La Muette_.
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