I had been asked to appear again at this society's concerts
during the winter. However, I only did so occasionally, to
conduct a Beethoven symphony, making it a condition that the
orchestra, and more especially the string instruments, should be
reinforced by capable musicians from other towns.

As I always required three rehearsals for each symphony, and many
of the musicians had to come from a great distance, our work
acquired quite an imposing and solemn character. I was able to
devote the time usually taken up by a rehearsal to the study of
one symphony, and accordingly had leisure to work out the
minutest details of the execution, particularly as the technical
difficulties were not of an insuperable character. My facility in
interpreting music at that time attained a degree of perfection I
had not hitherto reached, and I recognised this by the unexpected
effect my conducting produced.

The orchestra contained some really talented and clever
musicians, among whom I may mention Fries, an oboist, who,
starting from a subordinate place, had been appointed a leading
player. He had to practice with me, just as a singer would do,
the more important parts allotted to his instrument in
Beethoven's symphonies. When we first produced the Symphony in C
minor, this extraordinary man played the small passage marked
adagio at the fermata of the first movement in a manner I have
never heard equalled. After my retirement from the directorship
of these concerts he left the orchestra and went into business as
a music-seller.

The orchestra could further boast of a Herr Ott-Imhoff, a highly