THE V I O LIN AND ITS MUSIC, GEORGE HART, "HE VIOLIN: ITS ...

7HE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC.
Spohr, the programme consisting entirely of his
composItIOns. Upon this occasion, Herr Joachim,
then in his fifteenth year, played the Concerto in E
minor, No. I I, Op. 70.
Spohr often complained of the press reviews of
his compositions, and curiously enough gives in his
autobiography the substance of one, with which
he naturally disagreed, but which well describes
the character of his writing. The contemporary
German critic remarks, "The composer seems to
have considered his auditors in the light of stupid
servants." " The eternal rechewing of the theme in
every voice and key, is as though one had given an
order to an attendant that he is unable to understand,
necessitating the repetition of it over and over
again in every possible form of expression." In
another place Spohr himself tells us, with singular
modesty, " I had carried out a subject in the style of
Mozart, now in one key and then in another, and in
my delight at this scientific interweaving, had not
remarked that it at length became monotonous."
He adds, " that Reichardt disparaged it, and went
so far as to say ' you could not rest until you had
worried your motivo to death !' " If we take the
above remarks together with Mr. Chorley's, we
have a fair estimate of Spohr's style of compOSItIOn.
He says, "There is more than a ' set
smile ' in Dr. Spohr's music. It has its times and
places of vitality, individual intelligence, as well
as that genial air of swooning, over-luxurious,