Butler, Samuel, 1835-1902 -- Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc.
Part II opened with a suite in F Major for orchestra (op. 39) by
Moszkowski. This was much more clear and, in every way, interesting than
the Beethoven; every now and then there were passages that were pleasing,
not to say more. Jones liked it better than I did; still, one could not
feel that any of the movements were the mere drivelling show stuff of
which the concerto had been full. But it, like everything else done at
these concerts, is too long, cut down one-half it would have been all
right and we should have liked to hear it twice. As it was, all we could
say was that it was much better than we had expected. I did not like the
look of the young man who wrote it and who also conducted. He had long
yellowish hair and kept tossing his head to fling it back on to his
shoulders, instead of keeping it short as Jones and I keep ours.
Then came Schubert’s “Erl König,” which, I daresay, is very fine but with
which I have absolutely nothing in common.
And finally there was a tiresome characteristic overture by Berlioz,
which, if Jones could by any possibility have written anything so dreary,
I should certainly have begged him not to publish.
The general impression left upon me by the concert is that all the
movements were too long, and that, no matter how clever the development
may be, it spoils even the most pleasing and interesting subject if there
is too much of it. Handel knew when to stop and, when he meant stopping,
he stopped much as a horse stops, with little, if any, peroration. Who
can doubt that he kept his movements short because he knew that the worst
music within a reasonable compass is better than the best which is made
tiresome by being spun out unduly? I only know one concerted piece of
Handel’s which I think too long, I mean the overture to _Saul_, but I
have no doubt that if I were to try to cut it down I should find some
excellent reason that had made Handel decide on keeping it as it is.
At the Wind Concerts
There have been some interesting wind concerts lately; I say interesting,
because they brought home to us the unsatisfactory character of wind
unsupported by strings. I rather pleased Jones by saying that the
hautbois was the clarionet with a cold in its head, and the bassoon the
same with a cold on its chest.
At a Handel Festival
i
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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