y years; and we must not forget
it.[219]

[Footnote 219: It is known that M. Colonne has now a helper in M.
Gabriel Pierne, who will succeed him when he retires.]

The Lamoureux concerts have had from the beginning a very different
character from the Colonne concerts. That difference lies partly in the
personality of the two conductors, and partly in the fact that the
Lamoureux concerts, although of later date than the Colonne concerts by
less than ten years, represent a new generation in music. The progress
of the musical public was singularly rapid: hardly had they explored the
rich treasure-house of Berlioz's music than they were making discoveries
in the world of Wagner. And in that world they needed a new guide, who
had intimate knowledge of Wagner's art and of German art in general.
Charles Lamoureux was that guide. In 1873 he conducted special
performances of Bach and Haendel, given by the _Societe de l'Harmonie
sacree_. After leaving the conductorship of the Opera, he inaugurated,
on 21 October, 1881, at the Chateau-d'Eau theatre, the _Societe des
Nouveaux Concerts_. These concerts had at first very comprehensive
programmes of every kind of music and every kind of school. At the
first concert there were works of Beethoven, Haendel, Gluck, Sacchini,
Cimarosa, and Berlioz. In the first year Lamoureux had Beethoven's
_Ninth Symphony_ performed, as well as a large part of _Lohengrin_, and
numerous works of young French musicians. Various compositions of Lalo,
Vincent d'Indy, and Chabrier, were performed there for the first time.
But it was especially to the study of Wagner's works that Lamoureux most
gladly devoted himself. It was he who gave the first hearings of Wagner
in their entirety in France, such as the first and second act of
_Tristan_, in 1884-1885. The Wagnerian battle was still going on at that
time, as the notice printed at the head of the programme of _Tristan_
shows.

"The management of the _Societe des Nouveaux Concerts_ is desirous
of avoiding any disturbance during the performance of the second
act of _Tristan_, and urgently and respectfully begs that the
audience will abstain from giving any mark of their approval or
disapproval before the end of the act."

The same year, in the Eden theatre, to which the concerts had been
transferred, Lamoureux conducted, for the first time in Paris, the first
act of the _Walkuere_. In these concerts the tenor, Van Dyck, made his
_de