Otherwise, in that third concert it would he difficult to say whether
Schumann, Brahms, Mozart, or Beethoven was the better rendered. Perhaps
one might choose Mozart for pure pleasure. It was the "Serenade" for
wind instruments, and it seemed, played thus perfectly, the most
delightful music in the world. The music of Mozart is, no doubt, the
most beautiful music in the world. When I heard the serenade I thought
of Coventry Patmore's epithet, actually used, I think, about Mozart:
"glittering peace." Schumann, Brahms, Wagner, and Beethoven all seemed
for the moment to lose a little of their light under this pure and
tranquil and unwavering "glitter." I hope I shall never hear the
"Serenade" again, for I shall never hear it played as these particular
players played it.
The Meiningen orchestra is famous for its wind, and when, at the first
concert, I heard Beethoven's Rondino for wind instruments, it seemed to
me that I was hearing brass for the first time as I had imagined brass
ought to sound. Here was, not so much a new thing which one had never
thought possible, as that precise thing which one's ears had expected,
and waited for, and never heard.
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