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Page 12
"I have been asked whether I prefer to play for an audience of
'music-lovers' or one of 'music knowers.' Perhaps an equal mixture is
the happy medium. Of the two sorts it seems to me the music-knowers are
preferable, for even if they are very critical, they also recognize the
various points you make; they see and appreciate what you are striving
for. They are not inclined to say, 'I don't like such or such a player';
for the music-knower understands the vast amount of time and energy,
labor and talent that go to make a pianist. He rather says, 'I prefer
the playing of such or such an artist.' The word 'like' in connection
with a great artist seems almost an affront. What does it matter if his
work is not 'liked' by some? He knows it can stand for what it is--the
utmost perfection of his powers--of himself. And after all the audience
is the greatest teacher an artist can have; I have learned more from
this teacher than from any other. In this school I learn what moves and
touches an audience; how to improve this or that passage; how to make a
greater climax here, or more sympathetic coloring there. For in
conceiving how a work should sound, I get--in my study of it--a general
idea of the whole, and make it as nearly perfect as I am able. But it
has to be tested and tried--an audience must pass its opinion--must set
the seal of approval upon it. When the work has been polished by
repeated trials in this school, interpretation then becomes crystallized
in the mind and the piece can always be given in nearly the same way. A
painter does not change nor repaint his picture each time he exhibits
it; why need the musician change his idea of the interpretation at each
repetition? To trust too much to the inspiration of the moment might
injure the performance as a whole. When I have my ideal of the
interpretation worked out in mind, it becomes my sacred duty to play it
always in this spirit--always to give my best. I can never think that
because I am playing in Boston or New York, I must strive harder for
perfection than if I play in a little town. No, I must give the highest
that is in me, no matter where it may be. People sometimes ask me if I
am nervous before a recital. It is not that I am afraid of people; but I
am always anxious about being able to realize my ideal, when the moment
comes.
"I can say I prefer playing in America to anywhere else in the world;
for there are more real appreciation and understanding here than in any
other country. Of course the great music centers all over the world are
about the same; but the difference lies in the smaller cities, which in
America are far more advanced musically than in Europe. I have proved
this to be the case repeatedly. Not long ago I was booked for a couple
of recitals in a small town of not more than two thousand inhabitants.
When I arrived at the little place, and saw the barn of a hotel, I
wondered what these people could want with piano recitals. But when I
came to the college where I was to play and found such a large,
intelligent audience gathered, some of whom had traveled many miles to
be present, it proved in what estimation music was held. The teacher of
this school was a good musician, who had studied nine years with
Leschetizky, in Vienna; the pupils understood the numbers on the
program, were wide awake, and well informed as to what was going on in
the world of music.
"One handicap the present day pianist encounters, who plays much with
orchestra, and that is the dearth of modern concertos. The familiar ten
or dozen famous ones are played over and over, and one seldom hears
anything new. There are new ones written, to be sure, but the public has
not learned to care for them. The beautiful second concerto of
Rachmaninoff has not made a success, even in the great music centers,
where the most intelligent audiences have heard it. I believe that if an
audience of the best musicians could be assembled in a small room and
this work could be played to them, they could not fail to be impressed
with its beauties. I am now studying a new concerto by Haddon Wood,
which you see in manuscript there on the piano; it is one I find very
beautiful."
A subsequent conversation with the artist elicited the following:
"I might say that I began my music when about four years old, by playing
the Russian National Hymn, on a toy piano containing eight keys, which
had been given me. My older sister, who was studying the piano, noticed
this, showed me a few things about the notes, and I constantly picked
out little tunes and pieces on the real piano. Finally one day my
sister's teacher, Rudolph Heim, came to the house, mainly on my account.
This was in Odessa, in the south of Russia, where I was born and where I
spent my early years. On this occasion, he wanted to look at me and see
what I could do. Unluckily a sudden fit of shyness overcame me and I
began to cry; the exhibition could not take place, as nothing could be
made out of me that day. You see I was headstrong even at that early
age," said the young pianist, with one of her charming smiles.
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