Page:Anecdotes of Great Musicians.djvu/51

Rh As the trumpeter did not play his part with sufficient tone, the leader called to him to play louder. But even then the quantity of tone was not great enough to suit his conductor or to balance Mrs. Billington's voice; so he called out again: "Louder! louder! confound you, play louder!" The enraged foreigner, at what he considered an insult to his instrument, threw down his trumpet, exclaiming: "Loudere, loudere be ver easy do say; but, by gar! I say ver is de vint?"  

When Liszt was but twelve years of age (in 1823) he was advertised to give a concert; and upon the solicitation of Schindler, Beethoven went to hear and encourage this youthful prodigy. When the little Liszt came out on the platform, he saw Beethoven sitting in the front row. Instead of being unnerved by the great man's presence, it was an inspiration to him and he played with great fire and abandon. In the storm of applause which followed, the great master was seen to step up on the platform and catch up the little fellow in his arms and kiss him on both cheeks. Liszt never forgot this incident and used to repeat it with great pride, for he felt that the master had set the seal of greatness upon him in that kiss.  

Mendelssohn had a great aversion for the music of Meyerbeer. Mendelssohn's music was polished, elegant, scholarly, devoid of clap-trap or effects attempted for mere show. Meyerbeer's music, on the contrary, while containing much that was good and being especially effective in instrumentation, had much that was blatant, and that savored largely of the sensational. Both men had several points of personal resemblance. Both were of Jewish descent and inherited a Hebrew cast of 