lusive property of the Chatelet. Not only have
they performed his works there more frequently than anywhere else,[218]
but they are better understood there than in other places. The Colonne
orchestra and its conductor, gifted with great warmth of spirit,--though
it is sometimes a little intemperate--are rather bothered by works of a
classic nature and by those that show contemplative feeling; but they
give wonderful expression to Berlioz's tumultuous romanticism, his
poetic enthusiasm, and the bright and delicate colouring of his
paintings and his musical landscapes. Although Berlioz has his place at
the Chevillard and Conservatoire concerts, it is to the Chatelet that
his followers flock; and their enthusiasm has not been affected by the
campaign that for several years has been directed against Berlioz by
some French critics under the influence of the younger musical
party--the followers of d'Indy and Debussy.

[Footnote 218: The _Damnation de Faust_ alone was given in its entirety
a hundred and fifty times in thirty years.]

It is also at the Chatelet that the keenest musical passion has been
preserved in the public, even to this day. Thanks to the size of the
theatre, which is one of the largest in Paris, and to the great number
of cheap seats, you may always find there a number of young students who
make the most interested kind of public possible. And the music is
something more than a pleasure to them--it is a necessity. There are
some that make great sacrifices in order to have a seat at the Sunday
concerts. And many of these young men and women live all the week on the
thought of forgetting the world for a few hours in musical enjoyment.
Such a public did not exist in France before 1870. It is to the honour
of the Chatelet and the Pasdeloup concerts to have created it.

Edouard Colonne has done more than educate musical taste in France; for
no one has worked harder than he to break down the barriers that
separated the French public from the art of other lands; and, at the
same time, he has himself helped to make French art known to
foreigners. When he himself was conducting concerts all over Europe he
entrusted the conductorship at the Chatelet to the great German
_Kapellmeister_ and to foreign composers--to Richard Strauss, Grieg,
Tschaikowsky, Hans Richter, Hermann Levi, Mottl, Nikisch, Mengelberg,
Siegfried Wagner, and many others. No other conductor has done so much
for Parisian music during the last thirt