Excerpt from Brahms Festival: Given by the Symphony Society of New York, Walter Damrosch, Conductor, and the Oratorio Society of New York, Frank Damrosch, Conductor; Book of the Festival; March 25, 27, 29 and 30th, 1912, Carnegie Music Hall It is not within the province Of this introductory paper to discuss the works to be performed at this Brahms Festival in detail; that will be done in part elsewhere in this book. Something ought to be said, however, about Brahms, the man. It was entirely natural that he should have been the subject of violent attacks throughout his life. He was a strong, assertive, self-reliant man, who neither asked consideration for himself, nor felt bound to give it to others. He neither indulged in affectations, nor endured them with patience. There is probably only a mild infusion Of exaggeration in the story, that once when leaving a drawing-room in Vienna, he turned at the doorway to beg the pardon of any one whom he had unintentionally neglected to offend. He was intolerant Of pretence, and in everything the Opposite of a snob. A well known composer once read at the pianoforte with him a work that has since received wide acceptance. Brahms's criticism was: What beau tiful music-paper you use; pray, where do you get it? Another composer wrote a setting of Schiller's, Lay of the Bell, and asked Brahms for his opinion of it. He received it in these words: I have always thought that Schiller's 'glocke' was one of the greatest poems ever written, and I shall continue to hold that Opinion. TO a Violon cellist, who had asked him to play an accompaniment and complained that the pianoforte was so loud he could not hear his own instrument, Brahms replied: Lucky man l But if he would not flatter, neither would he listen to flattery. On an occasion a host produced a bottle Of wine, which, he said, he called Brahms wine, because it surpassed all other wines, as Brahms's music surpassed that of all other composers. Take it away, cried Brahms, and bring us a bottle of Bach l. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.