1842—Mannheim, Germany

Berlioz, on a tour of Germany, visits Mannheim, where he is forced to change his program because of the orchestra’s trombones. In his Memoirs he says, “I remember only that I wanted to give my second symphony (Harold) complete but that at the first rehearsal I had to suppress the finale (the Orgy) because the trombones were manifestly unequal to it.” A valve trombone is also adapted as a substitute for ophicleide: “There is no ophicleide; Lachner [the regular conductor] had attempted to devise a substitute for this instrument, which is used in all modern scores, by having a valve trombone made with a compass extending to bottom C or B. In my opinion it would have been simpler to send for an ophicleide and much better from the musical point of view, as the two instruments have little in common” (Berlioz-Cairns 288).