Page:Anecdotes of Great Musicians.djvu/67

Rh country was so anxious to hear his music as to take this method of securing the opportunity.

Pleased with the youth's eagerness for musical instruction and enjoyment, and perhaps somewhat flattered as well, Gluck ordered his release, gave him a ticket to the performance, and later sought to know more of his ardent admirer. This was the beginning of a lasting friendship between the two composers Gluck and Mehul, for the young man later achieved great prominence in the musical world. Mehul composed twenty-five operas and numerous other works, and was paid the highest honors the French nation could bestow. But through all of his successful career he never forgot the debt of gratitude he owed to Gluck for the interest taken in the crude young student, an interest which dated from the incident narrated above.  

Sophie Arnould was noted for being one of the wittiest as well as one of the handsomest women in France, and withal could hardly be excelled as a vocalist. On one occasion, while out taking a constitutional, she met a friend, a physician, who was carrying a gun under his arm. In the course of his remarks he mentioned that he was on his way to see a patient. "Ah, doctor," said she, "so you are afraid of your ordinary treatment failing?"  

One of the most popular of the classical virtuosi was Ignaz Moscheles, whose seventy-six years of life was ended in 1870. A friend of Beethoven, a teacher of Mendelssohn, a great player, teacher, and composer, he exercised a most beneficial influence in the musical world with his strong personality. For twenty years or more, Moscheles made his home in England.

A remark of his made at a dinner table soon after his