Page:Notes of a Pianist.djvu/28

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xviii
CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER XVII.
Leave Rochester—Recommend 'Congress hall'—Arrive at Lockport—Pours rain—Few at concert—Did my best—My principle—Who not a true artist—Inspiration independent of will—Set out again for Canada—That cursed gong—Custom everything—Another leaf torn from the tree of my illusions—Catholic church—Contrast between the sermon and the facts—A dreary month of May—A diatribe against fashionable music—Not as elevated as the music of the Christy minstrels—Neglect of our agent—Insult—Conversation between Strakosch and editor—Strakosch's revenge—I pity future artists—Four hundred concerts and forty thousand miles by rail—Alexandre Dumas's son and the wager—I suffer the same—In my heaven no pianos—My notions of hell—If Dante had known of the piano—When retarded on the road, and telegram arrived too late, what is done—'N. B.'—Characteristic trait of an American audience—The 'Cradle Song' for two pianos!!—'Marche du Prophète' with flageolet and guitar accompaniment—Probability—Error in 'Home journal'—What I claim, and what my detractors can say—From the height of my eighty thousand miles I defy the world—Anecdotes of Kalkbrenner and others—Stamaty my teacher for seven years—Cité d'Orleans, Paris—An artists' hive—Zimmerman—Formed all the pianists of the French school—Refuses me admission to the Conservatoire, saying that America was the country of railroads, but not of musicians—Dantan the sculptor—George Sand—Chopin—Count —— —Orfila—Ridicules Kalkbrenner—Orfila's anecdote—Distinguished guests!—Orflla—The cholera—Rigorous diet—The doctors asses—The proof—Apparent death of Orfila—Since his death disgusted with life!—Trousseau devotes his attention to a pretty American—Boyer—Ricord—Pasquier—Maissoneuve—Nélaton—Orfila's delight in music 289
CHAPTER XVIII.
Toronto, Canada—Superb concert—Conversation in an undertone—Real English gentlemen—Shock to amour propre—Polish engineer—Admirable order and neatness of English soldiers—Saint Catherine—"When tickets should be sold"—'John Marchmont's Legacy'—English romances—Money—French love—Which I prefer—Mr. Gottschoff!—"Collector of Her Majesty's customs"—Two pianos and only paid duty on one!—Official dignity offended—Am deceived—Am not Orpheus—Fifty persons applaud like five hundred—Excellent hotel—Utilitarianism and practical spirit of Americans—Audacious marvel of science—Strakosch's wit—Who pays for it—The terrible editor—Candid admission—Splendid concert at Buffalo—Canada—What a frightful country—Essentially Catholic—Irish and French—What French!—Oblate Fathers—Despair for humanity—Quebec—'Les Sagneurs'—Population of Lower Canada—Its character—The sermon at high mass—What is forbidden—The college students—The Pope a martyr—Garibaldi a highway robber—Play, whistle, and sing 'Dixie'—French pronunciation—Names in Lower Canada—Again travelling, after long repose—The kind of repose—Charity concerts and lady patronesses—Saratoga—'The Associated Company of Artists,' Testa and wife—Stefani, Amodio, Madame Lorini, Maestro Behrens, Devivo—'Lucrezia,' 'The Puritans,' and 'Trovatore' all played in two and a half hours for fifty cents—'Lucrezia' at Bellevue (Canada)—Ridiculous scenes—Sucess of the English corporal, notwithstanding a note too high—Esprit de corps—Poor Behrens—Providence going behindhand—Boston, great success—Morelli—Axiom of the Verdistas—Hartford—Faces to make false notes—L—— —Adieu, Boston!—What your enemies say—What I say—Longfellow—Mr. D.—No traditions in America—Who more or less like—Ticknor & Fields, Hawthorne, Hunt, Holmes, Whittier—Fields and the intelligent aristocracy of Boston—Fields's generous hospitality—Portrait of Longfellow and wife—Portrait of Tennyson—Compared with Longfellow's—Fields's collection of autographs—Dickens's manuscript— What like—How perfection and simplicity aimed at—What Boston possesses and New York does not—Maoenic New York—Opera in New York—How killed—Harrisburg—Charming audience—Pittsburg—Brilliant concert—"Poor little thing!" 300