but_; later, he was one of the leading performers at Bayreuth. In
1886-1887 Lamoureux rehearsed and conducted the only performance of
_Lohengrin_ at the Eden theatre. Disturbances in the streets prevented
further performances. Lamoureux then established himself in the
concert-room of the Cirque des Champs Elysees, where for eleven years he
has given what are called the _Concerts-Lamoureux_. He continued to
spread the knowledge of Wagner's works, and has sometimes had the help
of some of the most celebrated of the Bayreuth artists, among others,
that of Mme. Materna and Lilli Lehmann. At the end of the season of 1897
Lamoureux wished to disband his orchestra in order to conduct concerts
abroad. But the members of the orchestra decided to remain together
under the name of the _Association des Concerts-Lamoureux_, with
Lamoureux's son-in-law, M. Camille Chevillard, as conductor. But
Lamoureux was not long before he returned to the conductorship of the
concerts, which had now returned to the Chateau-d'Eau theatre; and a few
months before his death, in 1899, he conducted the first performance of
_Tristan_ at the Nouveau theatre. And so he had the happiness of being
present at the complete triumph of the cause for which he had fought so
stubbornly for nearly twenty years.[220]

[Footnote 220: My statements may be verified by the account published in
the _Revue Eolienne_ of January, 1902, by M. Leon Bourgeois, secretary
of the Committee of the _Association des Concerts-Lamoureux_.]

Lamoureux's performances of Wagner's works have been among the best that
have ever been given. He had a regard for the work as a whole and a care
for its details, to which the Colonne orchestra did not quite attain. On
the other hand, Lamoureux's defect was the exuberant liveliness with
which he interpreted compositions of a romantic nature. He did not fully
understand these works; and although he knew much more about classic art
than his rival, he rendered its letter rather than its spirit, and paid
such sedulous attention to detail that music like Beethoven's lost its
intensity and its life. But both his talents and his defects fitted him
to be an excellent interpreter of the young neo-Wagnerian school, the
principal representatives of which in France were then M. Vincent d'Indy
and M. Emmanuel Chabrier. Lamoureux had need, to a certain extent, to be
himself directed either by the living traditions of Bayreuth, or by the
thought of modern and liv