Mozart's overtures? But do our conductors ever dream of taking it
otherwise? Do they not always proceed monotonously from the first
bar to the last? With the members of the "elegant" tribe of
Capellmeisters the "conception" of the tempo consists of an
application of the Mendelssohnian maxim "chi va presto va sano."

Let the players who happen to have any regard for proper
execution make the best of it in passages like:--

[Musical Score]

or the plaintive:--

[Musical Score]

the conductors do not trouble their minds about such details;
they are on "classic ground," and will not stop for trifles; they
prefer to progress rapidly "grande vitesse," "time is money."

We have now reached the point in our discussion from which we can
judge the music of the day. It will have been noticed that I have
approached this point with some circumspection. I was anxious to
expose the dilemma, and to make everyone see and feel that since
Beethoven there has been a very considerable change in the
treatment and the execution of instrumental music. Things which
formerly existed in separate and opposite forms, each complete in
itself, are now placed in juxtaposition, and further developed,
one from the other, so as to form a whole. It is essential that
the style of execution shall agree with the matter set forth--
that the tempo shall be imbued with life as delicate as the life