ns from 1895 to 1905.
Berlioz's brief treatise on conducting is primarily concerned with practical matters related to the production of faithful performances in which the conductor managed "the host of intermediaries" who came between the composer's score and the audience. Prior to Berlioz's efforts Frantois-Antoine Habenek and his successors at the OpTra and the SociTtT des Concerts were string virtuosos in the tradition of first-violinists as group leaders--many of whom conducted with their bows from their seats in the violin section. Habenek, who was admired by Berlioz and Wagner, managed by insisting on "diligent rehearsals" to produce "performances of a technical perfection" not to be found elsewhere in Europe at the time. Even Habenek, however, never conducted from a full score and had a limited understanding of instrumentation and newer works. Unlike the traditional leaders, however, Berlioz had come of age in the era when orchestras had increased in size and "a canon of great works [came to] constitute the backbon
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