110  GEORGE   FREDERICK   HANDEL

works  of  the  master.  Gervinus  was  the  promoter
and  Friedrich  Chrysander  alone  accomplished  the
task.  It  did  not  aim  at  being  a  critical  edition  of
his  works.  His  ardent  apostle  sought  simply  to
revive  them  in  their  pristine  force.1  He  was
seconded  by  the  choral  societies  of  north  Germany,
particularly  by  the  Berlin  Singakademien,  which
from  1830  to  1860  never  ceased  to  perform  all  the
oratorios  of  Handel.  On  the  contrary,  Austria
remained  a  long  way  behind.  In  1873,  Brahms
conducted  the  first  production  of  Saul  in  Vienna,
but  the  veritable  awakening  of  Handel's  art  in
Germany  only  dates  back  about  half  a  score  years.
One  recognized  his  grandeur,  and  did  not  doubt
that  he  had  lived.  It  was  chiefly  (so  it  seems)  at  the
first  Handel  Festival  of  Mayence  in  1895,  where
Hercules  and  Deborah  were  given,  that  his  astound-
ing dramatic  genius  was  first  truly  felt  there.
To  us  in  France  we  still  await  the  full  revelation
of  the  living  scenes  of  this  great  and  luminous  tragic
art,  so  akin  to  the  aims  of  Ancient  Greece.2

1  See,  in  Chrysander's  work,  an  article  by  Emil  Krause,  in
the  Monatshefte  fur  Musikwissenschaft,  1904.
2  A  Societe  G.  F.  Handel  was  founded  in  Paris  in  1909,  under
the  direction  of  two  conductors   full  of  zeal  and  intelligence,
MM.  F.  Borrel  and  F.  Raugal.     It  has  already  done  much  to
awaken  the  love  of  Handel  in  France  by  giving  the  large  works
hitherto  unknown  in  France,  such  as  Hercules,  the  Foundling
Anthem,   and  the   model  performances  of  the  Messiah  at  the
Trocadero.
