2-888-660 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

M. Halevy, 1850. Portrait of French composer Fromental Halévy. 'For the last fifteen years this great composer has enjoyed a high reputation in England...at the opening of the theatrical campaign, in London, this year, two of his minor works were given, with signal success, at St. James's Theatre; another was no less successful at the Princess'...In Vienna, Beethoven '...received him kindly, but gave him a melancholy proof that he had lost one of his most perfect and exquisite senses - that of hearing; for, to give him a sample of his inspiration, he played on a harpsichord with broken strings, and so totally out of tune, as to produce nothing but clashing discords, although the immortal Beethoven did not perceive it'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.