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Page 44
A BRAHMS CONCERTO
As I listened to the eloquent reading of the Brahms second Concerto,
which Mr. Bachaus gave soon afterward with the New York Symphony, I was
reminded of a memorable event which occurred during my student days in
Berlin. It was a special concert, at which the honored guest and soloist
was the great Brahms himself. Von B�low conducted the orchestra, and
Brahms played his second Concerto. The Hamburg master was not a
virtuoso, in the present acceptance of the term: his touch on the piano
was somewhat hard and dry; but he played the work with commendable
dexterity, and made an imposing figure as he sat at the piano, with his
grand head and his long beard. Of course his performance aroused immense
enthusiasm; there was no end of applause and cheering, and then came a
huge laurel wreath. I mentioned this episode to Mr. Bachaus a few days
later.
"I first played the Brahms Concerto in Vienna under Hans Richter; he had
counseled me to study the work. The Americans are beginning to admire
and appreciate Brahms; he ought to have a great vogue here.
"In studying such a work, for piano and orchestra, I must not only know
my own part but all the other parts--what each instrument is doing. I
always study a concerto with the orchestral score, so that I can see it
all before me."
XXIII
ALEXANDER LAMBERT
AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN TEACHERS
Among American teachers Alexander Lambert takes high rank. For over
twenty-five years he has held aloft the standard of sound musicianship
in the art of teaching and playing. A quarter of a century of thorough,
conscientious effort along these lines must have left its impress upon
the whole rising generation of students and teachers in this country,
and made for the progress and advancement of American art.
It means much to have a native-born teacher of such high aims living and
working among us; a teacher whom no flattery nor love of gain can
influence nor render indifferent to the high aim ever in view. There is
no escaping a sound and thorough course of study for those who come
under Mr. Lambert's supervision. Scales must be, willingly or
unwillingly, the daily bread of the player; the hand must be put in
good shape, the finger joints rendered firm, the arms and body supple,
before pieces are thought of. Technical study must continue along the
whole course, hand in hand with piece playing; technic for its own sake,
outside the playing of compositions. And why not? Is the technic of an
art ever quite finished? Can it ever be laid away on the shelf and
considered complete? Must it not always be kept in working order?
"Have you not seen many changes in the aims of students, and in the
conditions of piano teaching in New York, during the years you have
taught here?" I asked Mr. Lambert, in the course of a recent
conversation.
"Some changes, it is true, I have seen," he answered; "but I must also
say that the conditions attending piano teaching in America are
peculiar. We have some excellent teachers here, teachers who can hold
their own anywhere, and are capable of producing finished artists. Yet
let a pupil go to the best teacher in this country, and the chances are
that he or she is still looking forward to 'finishing' with some
European artist. They are not satisfied until they have secured the
foreign stamp of approval. While this is true of the advanced pianist,
it is even more in evidence in the mediocre player. He, too, is
dreaming of the 'superior advantages,' as he calls them, of European
study. He may have no foundation to build upon--may not even be able to
play a scale correctly, but still thinks he must go abroad!
"You ask if I think students can obtain just as good instruction here as
in Europe? That is a little difficult to answer off-hand. I fully
believe we have some teachers in America as able as any on the other
side; in some ways they are better. For one thing they are morally
better--I repeat, _morally_ better. For another they are more thorough:
they take more interest in their pupils and will do more for them. When
such a teacher is found, he certainly deserves the deep respect and
gratitude of the American student. But alas, he seldom experiences the
gratitude. After he has done everything for the pupil--fashioned him
into a well-equipped artist, the student is apt to say: 'Now I will go
abroad for lessons with this or that famous European master!' What is
the result? He may never amount to anything--may never be heard of
afterward. On the other hand, I have pupils coming to me, who have been
years with some of the greatest foreign masters, yet who are full of
faults of all kinds, faults which it takes me years to correct. Some of
them come with hard touch, with tense position and condition of arms and
body, with faulty pedaling, and with a lack of knowledge of some of the
fundamental principles of piano playing.
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