“Here also I was an eye-witness to the esteem and respect in which this chapel stands with the Elector.  Just as the rehearsal was to begin, Ries was sent for by the prince, and upon his return brought a bag of gold.  ‘Gentlemen,’ said he, ’this being the Elector’s name-day, he sends you a present of a thousand thalers.’

“And again I was eye-witness of this orchestra’s surpassing excellence.  Herr Winneberger, Kapellmeister at Wallenstein, laid before it a symphony of his own composition, which was by no means easy of execution, especially for the wind instruments, which had several solos concertante.  It went finely, however, at the first trial, to the great surprise of the composer.

“An hour after the dinner-music, the concert began.  It was opened with a symphony of Mozart; then followed a recitative and air, sung by Simonetti; next a violincello concerto, played by Herr Romberger (Bernhard Romberg); fourthly, a symphony, by Pleyel; fifthly, an air by Righini, sung by Simonette; sixthly, a double concerto for violin and violoncello, played by the two Rombergs; and the closing piece was the symphony by Winneberger, which had very many brilliant passages.  The opinion already expressed as to the performance of this orchestra was confirmed.  It was not possible to attain a higher degree of exactness.  Such perfection in the pianos, fortes, rinforzandos,—­such a swelling and gradual increase of tone, and then such an almost imperceptible dying away, from the most powerful to the lightest accents,—­all this was formerly to be heard only at Mannheim.  It would be difficult to find another orchestra in which the violins and basses are throughout in such excellent hands.”

We pass over Junker’s enthusiastic description of the two Rombergs, merely remarking, that every word in his account of them is fully confirmed by the musical periodical press of Europe during the entire periods of thirty and fifty years of their respective lives after the date of the letter before us,—­and that their playing was undoubtedly the standard Beethoven had in view, when afterward writing passages for bowed instruments, which so often proved stumbling-blocks to orchestras of no small pretensions.  What Junker himself saw of the harmony and brotherly love which marked the social intercourse of the members of the Chapel was confirmed to him by the statements of others.  He adds, respecting their personal bearing towards others,—­“The demeanor of these gentlemen is very fine and unexceptionable.  They are all people of great elegance of manner and of blameless lives.  Greater discretion of conduct can nowhere be found.  At the concert, the ill-starred performers were so crowded, so incommoded by the multitude of auditors, so surrounded and pressed upon, as hardly to have room to move their arms, and the sweat rolled down their faces in great drops.  But they bore all this calmly and with good-humor; not an ill-natured face was visible among them.  At the court of some little prince, we should have seen, under the circumstances, folly heaped upon folly.