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Apart from these defects in the rendering of the ancient classics, it would be unjust not to acknowledge the great artistic merit and value of the performances, given—as Oratorio should be—in the church. To hear l’Enfance du Christ (Berlioz) as performed at the Sorbonne, with its particular facilities for obtaining the ppp effects of the distant or receding angelic chorus, is to be impressed to a degree impossible of attainment in the concert-room.
Let those purists who resent any “tampering”—as they term it—with the composers’ music listen to the following phrase, sung as it is printed in the ordinary editions:
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Then let them hear it given according to the authentic and accepted tradition, and say which of the two versions most faithfully interprets the composer’s meaning.
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Let us now consider alterations which do not appear in the printed editions, and yet may have been made or sanctioned by the composer.