Berlioz – the snuff incident

The snuff incident, involving Habeneck, the conductor, who had been chosen against Berlioz’ wishes and with whom Berlioz was on very poor terms, has been told in different ways, including variants concerning the occasion when it happened. Berlioz in his Mémoires* just talks about ‘the performance’. It happened, says David Cairns**, at the public dress rehearsal, ‘just when [Habeneck] should have been directing the brass at the new tempo of the Tuba Mirum’.

This is the way Berlioz tells it.
‘On the day of the performance, in the church of the Invalides, in front of princes, ministers, peers, members of the House of Deputies, the entire French press, correspondents from foreign newspapers and a huge general crowd, my work had to be a complete success. Mediocrity would have dealt my reputation a fatal blow, all the more so any unfortunate incident, which would have annihilated me. Now, listen to this.’ [...] ‘Because I am always on my guard, I had positioned myself behind Habeneck and, with my back to him, I was keeping an eye on the massed timpani, which he couldn’t see, just before their big moment for joining the fray. There are – say – a thousand bars in my Requiem. But having reached the bar I have mentioned, where the tempo gets slower, where the brass launch into their awesome fanfare, in other words the only bar where the conductor absolutely HAS to conduct, Habeneck lowered his baton, produced his snuff box as if he had not a care in the world and took a pinch of tobacco! I was still watching. Instantly I pivoted on one heel and, rushing to the front of him, I extended my arm and gave the four beats of the new movement. The groups of instruments then followed me in proper order, I conducted the movement to the end and produced the effect that I had dreamed of. When the chorus finished and he saw that the Tuba Mirum was saved, Habeneck said to me “What a fright I had, without you we would have lost it completely!” – “Yes, I realise that”, I said, staring him straight in the eye. I did not say another word. Had he done it on purpose? [...] I don’t want to think about it. But I am pretty sure he did. God forgive me if I malign him.’

* Hector Berlioz Mémoires, p 243-244.
**David Cairns (2000) Berlioz Volume 2– Servitude and Greatness, University of California Press, p 147.

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