Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/226

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A Musical Tour

unimaginable. It was the same despotic spirit that prevailed throughout the whole organisation of Prussia.^[1] An inquisitional and menacing supervision weighed upon music—for the king was a musician: a flautist, a virtuoso, a composer, as all had reason to know. Every afternoon, at Sans-Souci, from five to six o'clock, he gave a concert consisting of performances on the flute. The Court was invited by command, and listened piously to the three or four "long and difficult" concertos which it pleased the king to inflict upon them. There was no danger of his running short of these: Quantz had composed three hundred, expressly for these concerts; he was forbidden to publish any of them, and no one else might play them. Burney amiably observes that "these concertos had no doubt been composed in an age when people held their breath better; for in some of the difficult passages, as in the organ-points, his Majesty was obliged, against the rules, to take breath in order to finish the passage."^[2] The Court listened in resignation, and it was forbidden to betray the

↑ It should be noted how a stranger, even one with the highest recommendations, was received in the Prussian capital. Burney tells us of his arrival in Berlin. Despite his passport and a previous inspection by the customs officials on the Prussian frontier, he was led like a prisoner to the Berlin custom-house, and left shivering there for two hours in the rainy courtyard while the least of his effects were being examined. Very different was the Austrian custom-house, where young Mozart, at the age of seven, disarmed the officials by playing them a minuet on his little violin. But the most incredible part of Burney's narrative is the account of his visit to Potsdam. At the principal entrance and then at each door in the palace he was subjected to an interrogatory which was, he says, quite the most curious thing that had happened to him during his travels. "It could not have been more rigorous at the postern gate of a besieged city."
↑ Burney admits elsewhere that he played with "great precision, a clean and uniform attack, brilliant fingering, a pure and simple taste, a great neatness of execution, and equal perfection in all his pieces. His shakes are good, but too long and too studied."

[1] It should be noted how a stranger, even one with the highest recommendations, was received in the Prussian capital. Burney tells us of his arrival in Berlin. Despite his passport and a previous inspection by the customs officials on the Prussian frontier, he was led like a prisoner to the Berlin custom-house, and left shivering there for two hours in the rainy courtyard while the least of his effects were being examined. Very different was the Austrian custom-house, where young Mozart, at the age of seven, disarmed the officials by playing them a minuet on his little violin. But the most incredible part of Burney's narrative is the account of his visit to Potsdam. At the principal entrance and then at each door in the palace he was subjected to an interrogatory which was, he says, quite the most curious thing that had happened to him during his travels. "It could not have been more rigorous at the postern gate of a besieged city."

[2] Burney admits elsewhere that he played with "great precision, a clean and uniform attack, brilliant fingering, a pure and simple taste, a great neatness of execution, and equal perfection in all his pieces. His shakes are good, but too long and too studied."

[1]

[2]