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Show Rebuke to Emperor by Master of Music At a concert in St Petersburg, before be-fore a brilliant assemblage which Included In-cluded the czar and many members of his court, Franz Liszt was conducting conduct-ing a symphony. During the course of the music the czar began to converse con-verse in audible tones with one of his fair neighbors. In the very midst of the movement Liszt gave with his baton ba-ton a signal for the music to cease, and the players stopped short The abrupt silence filled the audience audi-ence with surprise, and the czar at once sent an equerry to ask for an explanation. Whereupon Liszt sent back word : "When the czar speaks, all the rest must be silent" As this was a court regulation, the czar had to suffer the rebuke of a foreign musician administered under the guise of obedience to court etiquette. eti-quette. Hans von Bulow, In relating his father-in-law's unprecedented act of courage, says George S. Hellman, who tells the story In "Lanes of Memory," said that he would have given a year of his life to have had such an opportunity to teach an emperor em-peror that art must be respected. |