A CONCERT PREACHER

Hans von Bülow was a brilliant pianist and, according to the authorities, a public nuisance—because he kept slipping political commentary into his concert speeches. In Leipzig the police forced this “concert preacher” to sign a promise not to say a single word at concerts, not even to announce his next appearance.

Berlin was worse. After he mocked the opera intendant Count von Hülsen and called the opera house “the circus von Hülsen runs,” Bülow was stripped of titles and medals. When Hülsen soon died, ushers were even given Bülow’s photograph so they could keep him out of a memorial concert.

Bülow’s comeback was the kind that only a musician can pull off: the very next evening he sat at the piano and improvised on Mozart’s *Figaro* theme that asks, in essence, “Will the Count venture on a little dance?” The audience got it instantly and burst out laughing. Sometimes the sharpest speech is musical.