His countryman, Tschaikowsky, also was neglected during his lifetime; but since his death he has become, especially in London, almost as popular as Wagner; and deservedly so, for he was a genius of the highest type, less in his songs and pianoforte works than in his symphonies and symphonic poems, which include some of the most inspired pages in modern music.  In some of his compositions there is a barbaric splendor which proclaims the Russian and delights those who like exotic novelty in music.  Like all the Russians, Tschaikowsky was strongly influenced by Liszt; indeed, it may be said that in Russia Liszt was more potent in shaping the course of modern music than even Wagner.

Another Slavic composer, the Bohemian Dvorak, is of special interest to Americans not only because he is one of the greatest of modern orchestral writers (a colorist of rare charm), but because he presided for several years over Mrs. Thurber’s National Conservatory of Music in New York, and there wrote that truly melodious and deeply emotional work, “From the New World,” which has become almost as popular as Tschaikowsky’s “Pathetique.”  His Bohemian rhythms have a unique charm.

Among the Scandinavian composers the greatest, by far, is Grieg, one of the most original melodists and harmonists of all times.  His songs, in particular, are destined to immortality; they are among the very best written since Schubert.  Of his pianoforte and chamber music, too, it can be said that everything is new, free from commonplace, and ultra-modern.  He has written mostly short pieces, and for that reason has had to wait (like Chopin in his day) a long time for full recognition of his genius, the critics not having yet got over the foolish habit of measuring art-works with a yardstick.  Like Chopin, moreover, Grieg has had the ill-fortune of having his most original and individual traits accredited to his nation and described as “national peculiarities.”  His music does contain such peculiarities; but it is necessary to distinguish between what is Norwegian and what is Griegian.  Grieg’s little pieces and songs are big with genius.

The Hungarian Liszt is another immortal master who, beside the fruits of his individual genius, contributed to the current of modern music some of those exotic national traits which distinguish it from that of earlier epochs when it was almost exclusively Italian, French, and German.  His fifteen Hungarian rhapsodies constitute, however, only a small part of the invaluable legacy he has left the world.  He was the most many-sided of all musicians,—­the greatest of all pianists, and one of the best composers of oratorios, songs, orchestral, and pianoforte works,—­everything, in short, except operas and chamber music.  He was also the greatest of teachers and (with the exception of Wagner) the greatest of conductors; as such, he carried out both his own and Wagner’s new and revolutionary principles of interpretation, which have gradually made the orchestral conductor a personage of even greater importance, in concert hall and opera-house, than the prima donna, travelling, like her, from city to city, to delight lovers of music.