New-York tribune., 1875-05-14

the recitave at the beginning Of the second part with
astonishing fro and unanimty and then
began the terrible vocal portion, at which /
for my part always trembe with apprehension The
quartet was well done by Mrs Smith, Miss Cary, Mr..
Winch and Mr. Remmertz all four distinguishing them
selves highly As for the chorus felt at the first
attack that going through grandy and truth
did is success was not only complete It was eec-
trfcal. Whatever little mperfections there may
have been in the delivery were lost in the mag
ni6cent rush Of song; and when the end came
the whole vast assembage eaped its feet and shouted
Thomas received the honors of conqueror The chorus
applauded him with the rest, and the audience stood
upon the chairs and waved hats and handkerchiefs in
sort Of frantic delight There said to have been
than 5000 people In the hail. great mob surrounded
the doors from to o'clock, and think there must
have been many hundreds who failed to get In at all
ALTERATIONS OF THE NINTH SYMPHONY.
There has been such hot dispute over the
changes in Beehovens Choral Symphony suggested by
Wagner and others that the musical public will be
curious to know just how far Theodore Thomas allowed
himself to depart in the performance Of tonight from
the strict letter Of the He has not adopted the
principal alterations proposed by Wagner which it must
be confessed are bold and arbitrary but he has intro
duced few notifications, slight IN themselves, import
ant in their results which defended upon the
principle that justified the labor OF Robert Franz upon
the scores Of Bach and Handel. In short he has gov
erned nlInse1 Dy the rule that changes are allowable
only when they necessary to carry out the manifest
intentions Of the composer Without discussing the
sOundness Of his position purpose to show just what
he has done, and why he has done it.
It used to be thought that certain parts Of the last
movement impossible Of execution and when
MOscheles directed the performance OF the work IN
London in 1897 he made extraordinary and exten
sve alterations for the sake OF lessenng the strain
the voices giving soprano parts to the bass and
vice versa; yet Moschees Beethoven's intimate
friend pupil and profound admirer 1t is admitted,
however that all the technical difficulties OF the SYM
phony be and changes for the mere con
OF the performers must be summary ruled ont
We need only ourselves with notifications in
tended to give truthful expression to the COM
poser's thought. NJ GOunOd. in his indignant letter
10 Oscar COmettant Wagners emendations OF the
Ninth Symphony asked what would be Thought
of a modern artist VINO should attempt TO i'm
prove the pictures of Raphael or Leonardo The
parallel however does not hold because the painter Is
his interpreter whereas the composer of a sym
phony depends upon the orchestra TO convey his conc
tiOns Mozart and Haydn. as Wagner re-
marks had musical thought which their orches-
ira was not entirely competent TO express. Between
Mozart symphony and Mozart orchestra there is the
most perfect accordance Beethoven, however, scared
far capabilities of the performers OF his time,
and some Of his later works long remained Incompetent
sibe Several of his pianO-forte sonatas were almost
hopelessly obscure until Lszt and Won Bow discovered
how TO bring ont their melody The form and meaning
of many passages Of the Ninth Symphony are still ind
tnct TO the listener and the conductor who 80 change
them reveal the hidden intentions OF the composer
deserves the thanks Of all good musicians.
The changes adopted by Thomas group themselves IN
three classes First have those intended to affect the
dynamic balance between the different divisions OF the
orchestra and the consequent prominence of the meodc
idea secondly changes resulting from mechanical n-
provemens in the Of the modern orchestra
thirdly the correction of obvious faults OF harmony
originating possibly in the bunders Of some remote
cOpyist printer.
l. for the first II is supposed that toward the close
OF his Beethoven after many years deafness lost Ia
some degree his recollection not of the qualities and con
trasts the different instruments but OF their relative
strength Certainly there passages OF the Ninth
Symphony where mcodc phrases Of the first Importance
are given the weak wood instruments, with cnen-
dous background OF strings and the result IL
that melody is lost and hea- only the accompan-
ment This trouble, which doubtless originated In the
composers f0rgetfuness Of the comparative weakness OF
the wood has been aggravated by the great increase IN
the number strings in all grand OrcheStras since
his time There is striking example OF this dynamic
difficulty in the famous melOdic passa Of the ocherzo