Page:Selected letters of Mendelssohn 1894.djvu/49

Rh once the choir strikes in and sings the same words. When I first heard my well-known

and all the monastic voices round me took up the words with a sort of eager resonance, the result was fairly startling; it is still always my special moment. After the service Santini presented me with his olive branch, and I walked about with it in my hand all day, for the weather was charming. The Stabat Mater, which they placed after the creeds, impressed me little, the singing was uncertain, sometimes false, and they cut it short; our academy sings it better beyond comparison.