Minor irritations of major concerts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2023
Summary
It’s at the annual Baden festival that these minor irritations make themselves painfully felt. Yet the musical director in charge has everything in his favour; no cheeseparing economies are forced upon him, nor is he fettered in any way. Monsieur Bénazet, convinced that the best approach is to allow him a free hand, doesn’t interfere in anything—except paying the bills. “Be as lavish as you like,” he says, “I’m giving you carte blanche.” Quite right too! With music, that’s the only way to produce anything fine and beautiful. You’re laughing, I see; you must be thinking of Jean Bart’s reply to Louis XIV: “Jean Bart, I’ve appointed you commander of the fleet!”
“Well done, Sire!”
Go on then, laugh! Jean Bart was right all the same. Yes, sire, you did well; it would be a good thing if sailors alone were chosen to command fleets. It would be a good thing, too, if once a Jean Bart was appointed, a Louis XIV should never start checking on his manoeuvres, making suggestions, and burdening him with his own anxieties, as in the first scene of Shakespeare’s Tempest:
Alonso, King of Naples: Good boatswain, have care. Where’s the master? Play the men.
Boatswain: I pray now, keep below.
Antonio: Where is the master, boson?
Boatswain: Do you not hear him? You mar our labour; keep your cabins; you do assist the storm.
Gonzalo: Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard.
Boatswain: None that I more love than myself. You are a counsellor; if you can command these elements to silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope more. Use your authority; if you cannot, give thanks you have lived so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap.—Cheerly, good hearts!— Out of our way, I say.
Despite having so many resources at his disposal, and this precious freedom to use them as he wishes, it’s still a hard task for the musical director to make a success of a festival like Baden, so great is the number of small obstacles and so damaging the impact that even the slightest of them can have on the whole of an enterprise of this kind.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Musical MadhouseAn English Translation of Berlioz's <i>Les Grotesques de la musique</i>, pp. 75 - 78Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2003