The programme for the three days’ festival was as follows: 

Saturday, May 20th.

     Oberon Overture:  Weber (conducted by Richard Strauss).

     Les Beatitudes:  Cesar Franck (conducted by Camille Chevillard).

     Impressions d’ltalie:  Gustav Charpentier (conducted by Camille
     Chevillard).

     Three songs by Jean Sibelius, Hugo Wolf, Armas Jaernefelt (sung by
     Mme. Jaernefelt).

     The last scene from Die Meistersinger:  Wagner (conducted by
     Richard Strauss).

Sunday, May 21st.

     Cinquieme Symphonie:  Gustav Mahler (conducted by Gustav Mahler).

     Rhapsodie, for contralto, choir, and orchestra:  Johannes Brahms
     (conducted by Ernst Muench).

     Strasburg Concerto in G major, for violin (played by Henri
     Marteau; conducted by Richard Strauss).

     Sinfonia domestica:  Richard Strauss (conducted by Richard
     Strauss).

Monday, May 22nd.

     Coriolan Overture:  Beethoven (conducted by Gustav Mahler).

     Concerto in G major, for piano:  Beethoven (played by Ferruccio
     Busoni).

     Lieder:  An die enfernie Geliebte:  Beethoven (sung by Ludwig
     Hess).

     Choral Symphony:  Beethoven (conducted by Gustav Mahler).

* * * * *

M. Chevillard alone represented our French musicians at the festival; and they could have made no better choice of a conductor.  But Germany had delegated her two greatest composers, Strauss and Mahler, to come to conduct their newest compositions.  And I think it would not have been too much to set up one of our own foremost composers to combat the glory which these two enjoy in their own country.

M. Chevillard had been asked to conduct, not one of the works of our recent masters, like Debussy or Dukas, whose style he renders to perfection, but Franck’s Les Beatitudes, a work whose spirit he does not, to my mind, quite understand.  The mystic tenderness of Franck escapes him, and he brings out only what is dramatic.  And so that performance of Les Beatitudes, though in many respects fine, left an imperfect idea of Franck’s genius.

But what seemed inconceivable, and what justly annoyed M. Chevillard, was that the whole of Les Beatitudes was not given, but only a section of them.  And on this subject I shall take the liberty of recommending that French artists who are guests at similar festivals should not in future agree to a programme with their eyes shut, but have their own wishes considered, or refuse their help.  If French musicians are to be given a place in German Musikfeste, French people must be allowed to choose the works that are to represent them.  And, above all, a French conductor must not be brought from Paris, and find on his arrival a mutilated score and an arbitrary choice of a few fragments that are not even whole in themselves.  For they played five out of the eight Beatitudes, and cuts had been made in the third and eighth Beatitudes.  That showed a want of respect for art, for works should be given as they are, or not at all.