Invocation C. Gounod (1818–1893)
Chorale Prelude on "Here, O Our Lord, We See You Face to Face"
Prelude in Bb J.S.Bach (1685-1750)
The concert pianist Charles Hallé visited Paris to give a recital, and afterwards went to a reception where he met Gounod. Gounod seized him by both hands and thanked him profusely for the pleasure his recital had given him, humming a passage from a Beethoven Sonata saying "No one — no one, my dear friend, except you, could have interpreted that passage in so masterly a way. Even with my eyes shut, I should have known that Hallé was playing." Immediately after came Madame Gounod, who began by apologizing for her and her husband's absence from the concert owing to a previous engagement.
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