the music of my composition to himself on the piano. During the
previous winter I had often heard his grand instrumental pieces
played under his own direction, and had been most favourably
impressed by them. During that winter (1839-40) he conducted
three performances of his new symphony, Romeo and Juliet, at one
of which I was present.

All this, to be sure, was quite a new world to me, and I was
desirous of gaining some unprejudiced knowledge of it. At first
the grandeur and masterly execution of the orchestral part almost
overwhelmed me. It was beyond anything I could have conceived.
The fantastic daring, the sharp precision with which the boldest
combinations--almost tangible in their clearness--impressed me,
drove back my own ideas of the poetry of music with brutal
violence into the very depths of my soul. I was simply all ears
for things of which till then I had never dreamt, and which I
felt I must try to realise. True, I found a great deal that was
empty and shallow in his Romeo and Juliet, a work that lost much
by its length and form of combination; and this was the more
painful to me seeing that, on the other hand, I felt overpowered
by many really bewitching passages which quite overcame any
objections on my part.

During the same winter Berlioz produced his Sinfonie Fantastique
and his Harald ('Harold en Italie'). I was also much impressed by
these works; the musical genre-pictures woven into the first-
named symphony were particularly pleasing, while Harald delighted
me in almost every respect..

It was, however, the latest work of this wonderful master, his