Beethovenian concerto: for we find there some of the spirit of the Bonn master. For Kretzschmar the ensemble calls to mind a beautiful autumn day--the morning, where the rising sun pierces its way through the clouds--the afternoon, the joyful walk, the rest in the forest, and finally the happy and belated return. It is difficult in fact not to have natural scenes brought before one's eyes in hearing these works. The first _Andante Larghetto_, which predicts, at times, the Pastoral Symphony of Beethoven, is a reverie on a beautiful summer's day. The spirit lulls itself with nature's murmur, becomes intoxicated with it, and goes to rest. The tonality rocks between F major to B flat major and G minor. To render this piece well it is necessary to give the time plenty of play, often retarding it, and following the composer's reverie in a spirit of soft leisurely abandon. [Illustration: _Andante larghetto_] The _Allegro_ in D minor which follows is a spirited and delicate little play, a dialogue leaping from the two solo violins of the _Concerto_, then on to the _Concertino_ and the _Grosso_ in turn. There, also, certain passages in the Bass, robust, rollicking, and rustic, again bring to mind the Pastoral Symphony. [Illustration: _Allegro_] [Illustration: _Largo_] The third movement, a _Largo_ in B flat major, is one of the most intimate of Handel's instrumental pages. After seven bars of _Largo_, in which the _Concertino_ alternates dreamily with the _Tutti_, two bars _adagio_, languorously drawn out, cause the reverie to glide into a sort of ecstasy, [Illustration: _Adagio_] then a _larghetto andante e piano_ breathes out a tender and melancholy song. [Illustration: _Larghetto andante_] The _Largo_ is resumed. There is in this little poem a melancholy which seems to revive Handel's personal remembrances.--The _allegro ma non troppo_ with which it finishes is, on the contrary, of a jovial feeling, entirely Beethovenish; it sings joyfully as it bounds along in well-marked three-four time, with a _pizzicato_-like rhythm. [Illustration: _Allegro ma non troppo_] In the middle of this march a phrase occurs on the two violins of the _Concertino_ which is like a hymn of reverent and tender gratitude. [Illustration] [Illustration] The Fourth Concerto in A minor is not less intimate with its _Larghetto affettuoso_, which ought to be played with the _rubato_, _rallentando_ and short pauses--its _allegro_ fugue, which spreads out and over-shadows all by its powerful tread--and after a _Largo_ of antique graveness the _allegro_ three-four which finishes is the veritable last movement of the Beethoven sonata, romantic, capricious, passionate, and more and more unrestrained as it approaches the end, _accelerando_ nearly _prestissimo_,--inebriated.[418] [Illustration: _Allegro_] [Illustration]