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various movements. At the close of the Symphony, an incident occurred which must have brought the tears to many an eye in the room. The master, though placed in the midst of this confluence of music, heard nothing of it all, and was not even sensible of the applause of the audience at the end of his great work, but continued standing with his back to the audience, and beating the time, till Fräulein Ungher, who had sung the contralto part, turned him or induced him to turn round and face the people, who were still clapping their hands and giving way to the greatest demonstrations of pleasure. His turning round, and the sudden conviction thereby forced on everybody that he had not done so before because he could not hear what was going on, acted like an electric shock on all present; and a volcanic explosion of sympathy and admiration followed, which was repeated again and again, and seemed as if it would never end.[1]
The Symphony starts in an entirely different manner from any other of the nine, with a prologue which is not an introduction, properly speaking, and yet introduces the principal subject of the movement. The tempo is the same from the beginning,—
- ↑ This anecdote, which is given in several forms in the books, was told to the writer exactly as above by Madame Sabatier-Ungher (the lady referred to), during her visit to London in 1869.
