The fashion of inept fantasias and acrobatic
variations has, it is true, gone by; but of late years virtuosity has
returned in an offensive way, and, sheltering itself under the solemn
classical name of "concertos," it usurped a place of rather exaggerated
importance in symphony concerts, and especially in M. Chevillard's
concerts--a place which Lamoureux would never have given it. Then the
younger and more enthusiastic part of the public began to revolt; and
very soon, with perfect impartiality and quite indiscriminately, began
to hiss famous and obscure virtuosi alike in their performance of any
concerto, whether it was splendid or detestable. Nothing found favour
with them--neither the playing of Paderewski, nor the music of
Saint-Saens and the great masters. The management of the concerts went
its own way and tried in vain to put out the disturbers, and to forbid
them entry to the concert-room; and the battle went on for a long time,
and critics were drawn into it. But in spite of its ridiculous excesses,
and the barbarism of the methods by which the parterre expressed its
opinions, that quarrel is not without interest. It proved how a passion
and enthusiasm for music had been roused in France; and the passion,
though unjust in its expression, was more fruitful and of far greater
worth than indifference.
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