A Spectator at Lucerne

Extract

From the garden of Wagner's house at Tribschen, one can peer down through the screen of foliage to the many-spired bassin of Lucerne; and inside the house are the framed programmes of the gigantic and adventurous concerts at which were performed the new inventions of the householder. Wagner is much esteemed by the authorities of Lucerne, and they have carefully trimmed his maple avenue, carefully swept and polished the corridors of his box-like villa. But when it comes to organizing a festival, his works are not performed, and the programmes have nothing of his obstinate audacity. An amiable incoherence was the mark of this year's Lucerne Festival. There was little planning, and there had been little publicity. The representative of the Cape Times bore almost alone the privilege of interpreting the scene to the English-speaking world. The programmes themselves would have been inconspicuous even at a Promenade Concert. Nobody, at this stage in the history of music, is going to post half across the world to hear Don Juan or the First Symphony of Brahms.