Così parlò Zarathustra

Peter Tchaikovsky, a frequent guest of the Philharmonic Society, enthused after a concert:

'The splendid Philharmonic Orchestra in Berlin possesses a special quality, for which I can find no more appropriate expression than elasticity. They have the capacity to adapt themselves to the dimensions of a Berlioz or a Liszt, and of reproducing with equal mastery the variegated arabesques of the former and the thunderous cannonades of the latter — yet they are able to exercise the restraint called for by the gentleness of a Haydn…. The members of the Philharmonic Orchestra do not work in the theaters and are therefore not worn out and exhausted. Moreover, they are a self‐governing body, they play for their own benefit and not for an entrepreneur who takes the lion's share of the profits for himself. The coincidence of these favourable and exceptional conditions naturally contributes to the harmony of the artistic performance…'