I HAVE understood, on Sunday better than ever, how and why, in the presence of a big work by Beethoven, imagination plays a role equal to that of music. Carl Schuricht lead the Nineth Symphony, with a grandeur which did not exclude meticulousness at all. Out of this dense work, and about the construction of which learned musicians have talked at great length, parts came with incomparable logic and clarity. Tempi were not too quick, the gesticulation was reduced to the strict minimum ; with that, the orchestre du Conservatoire in great form (special distinction to the horn soloist, Mr Thevet, who did wonders), four beautiful soloists, and the Brasseur choral, induced by its conductor not to bargain over its collective faith and talent.
All that, which was beautiful, truely made sense after the concert, in Mr Schuricht's dressing room. From an artist whom I have just admired for what he has done, I always like to learn what he intended to do. Well ! Mr Schuricht talked about " his " symphony with so hearty words, he asked so simply about the effect created by such and such an initiative - a gesture, a sudden halt, a smooth crescendo - he was, in brief, so filled with his subject and so passionate that suddenly the Nineth seemed to us even much more lively than an hour earlier. " For a true musician, said Reynaldo Hahn, there is better than to listen to the music : it is to talk about it. "
Clarendon.
Le Figaro, November 16th 1949.