ABSTRACT
Jaeger had two characteristic contributions published in the Musical Times of July 1896. One, a letter appearing over his name, and dealing with a posthumous vocal duet of Tchaikovsky, is easy enough to identify. The other, a report on that year's Lower Rhine Festival at Dusseldorf *By Our Special Correspondent', is unsigned but contains every evidence of his authorship. Jaeger began by recalling his first such festival in 1878, the year he quitted Germany, and a performance conducted by Joachim of Brahms's Second Symphony, still in manuscript. He compared its enthusiastic reception to that given to Richard Strauss, who conducted three of his works at the 1896 gathering, and concluded pointedly that 'in Dusseldorf, at any rate, unknown works by living composers did not frighten music-lovers away, as is, alas! so often the case at our best concerts at home'. But before dealing with the musical aspects of the Festival, Jaeger could not resist a little scene-painting, evidence of a certain proprietorial pride in the city of his birth.
