New-York tribune., 1900-08-26
MUSIC.
GERMAN WORKS, GERMAN CONDUCTORS
AND GERMAN TASTE IN PARIS, THE
TRIUMPH OF WAGNERISM-

Paris in 1886 he found some charming and brill
liant newspaper correspondents there who enter
tanned him delightfully."- at their private homes
and apologized for not introducing him at the
International Press Club the score that an
Introduction from them would not insure KIND
treatment from their French colleagues, but the
reverse They were Germans and one of them
not only ordered to leave France some
years afterward but his wife and children were
literally pelted with stones by a French rabble
as they tearfuy left their pretty home in AS
nieres The correspondents offence? He had pub
Hshed unwelcome truths about the Sue5
Canal scandal Five years later the Pilgrim
made q second journey to Paris in the hope of
hearing the first performance of 'Lohengrin"
at the Grand Opera The performance did not
take place at the time planned the Pilgrim de-
parted without the coveted experience and
unable to put on record the happenings of a
few weeks later, when Paris showed itself more
ntolerant toward "Lohengrin" than IT had been
toward "Tannhauser" thirty years before In
1861 it a social cabal that frustrated the
representations of Wagner's work; In 1891 it was
q politically fOmented opposition or at least en-
couraged by the jealousy of a coterie Of COM
posers who were not slow in seeing that with
the doors Of the Grand Opera once opened wide
to the Wagnerian list they should all soon be
undone. But yet ''Lohengrin" held it's place and
In one year, from August, 1892, to July 1893,
the royalties paid to Wagners heirs amounted
10 nearly 10000 francs, quite four times the
sum paid for all the works Of Meyerbeer Ros-
SIM and Verdi combined. Then followed "Die
Walkire," which was sung sixty-eight times IN
two years. 'Tannhauser'' had its revival in
1oSo' Die Mestersinger" brought forward
IN 1897, since when it has held the stage as the
most popular work in the repertorv of the his
torlc Academic, and Christian und Isolde" was
given last November at the Noveau Theatre
Let NJ Jean de ResZke sing the titular role of
that lyric tragedy in November, as he hopes now
to DO, and 1t will be all day with the composers
and eomposerlings who disgraced themselves and
their art by bowling with the mob against 10
hengrin'' in 1891.
But this is only one short chapter in a story
dealing with the present dominance of German
music In Paris. The Tribune's Musical Pilgrim
spent some eight weeks in the French capitaI
this summer. His duties as member of the In
ternational Jury of the Exposition left him
ptue tlme Tor hearing music. and less for record
Ing his Impressions but the largest lesson which
ne learned was that of the complete surrender
OF musical France to musical Germany The
nost hoIanIe operate representations which he
attended We're those OF Die Meistersfnger,' at
tne Grand and "Hansel and GreteI' at the
Comlque; the most notable concerts were those
of the Vienna Philharmonic Society and the
Wienergesangverein in the Chatelet Theatre and
the Irocadero The operas were both marked
py some absurdities which grew out OF the in
herent differences between the sentiments and
the languages of the two peoples and there were
features in the concerts which left one wishing
that the French might adhere a little more con-
serVatvely to some Of their artistic PRINCIPLES
and be a trifie less precipitate in their own
Sermanizatlons but there could be no nOssibIe
or probable manner Of doubt-no shadow OF
doubt whateVer-that the Parisians have flung
their chauvtnism and also their conservatism to
he winds in the presence of the German art
why do your great concert institutions IN
ReW-York and Boston always import German
eonductorsf" asked M. Eugege d'Harcourt of
NE at luncheon while we were discussing the
state OF music in the universe generally and
symphonic music In particular. There were
several reasons which 1 might have exploited
Ior M dHarcourt is not only young gentleman
and nobleman, but musician as well; not onlv
musician but one Of the serious kind who has
devoted talents. energy and money to making
propaganda in Paris for such German musicians
Gs Beethoven and Handel Cmagtne the need of
Ench thingD; he has not only conducted sym-
phony concerts. but prepared the understand
ing Of his listeners by admirable printed an |
hyses OF the works brought forward So sew |
hral answers might have been made but re- |
pied to his question in the Irish style by asking
mother: why do you go wild over German |
eonductors-Nikisch, MottL Weingartner even |
FAa