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Page 9
"The teacher's work is both corrective and constructive. He must see
what is wrong and be able to correct it. Like a physician, he should
find the weak and deficient parts and build them up. He should have some
remedy at his command that will fit the needs of each pupil.
"I give very few �tudes, and those I administer in homeopathic doses. It
is not necessary to play through a mass of �tudes to become a good
pianist. Much of the necessary technic may be learned from the pieces
themselves, though scales and arpeggios must form part of the daily
routine.
KEEPING UP A REPERTOIRE
"In keeping a large number of pieces in mind, I may say that the pianist
who does much teaching is in a sense taught by his pupils. I have many
advanced pupils, and in teaching their repertoire I keep up my own. Of
course after a while one grows a little weary of hearing the same pieces
rendered by students; the most beautiful no longer seem fresh. My own
compositions are generally exceptions, as I do not often teach those. To
the thoughtful teacher, the constant hearing of his repertoire by
students shows him the difficulties that younger players have to
encounter, and helps him devise means to aid them to conquer these
obstacles. At the same time there is this disadvantage: the pianist
cannot fail to remember the places at which such and such a student had
trouble, forgot or stumbled. This has happened to me at various times.
In my recitals I would be playing ahead, quite unconscious that anything
untoward could occur--wholly absorbed in my work; when, at a certain
point, the recollection would flash over me--this is where such or such
a pupil stumbled. The remembrance is sometimes so vivid that I am at
some effort to keep my mental balance and proceed with smoothness and
certainty.
"Yes, I go over my pieces mentally, especially if I am playing an
entirely new program which I have never played before; otherwise I do
not need to do so much of it.
FILLING IN A PASSAGE
"You suggest that a composer may fill in or make up a passage, should he
forget a portion of the piece when playing in public. True; but
improvising on a well-known work is rather a dangerous thing to do in
order to improve a bad case. Apropos of this, I am reminded of an
incident which occurred at one of my European recitals. It was a wholly
new program which I was to give at Vevay. I had been staying with
Paderewski, and went from Morges to Vevay, to give the recital. In my
room at the hotel I was mentally reviewing the program, when in a
Mendelssohn Fugue, I found I had forgotten a small portion. I could
remember what went before and what came after, but this particular
passage had seemingly gone. I went down to the little parlor and tried
the fugue on the piano, but could not remember the portion in question.
I hastened back to my room and constructed a bridge which should connect
the two parts. When the time came to play the fugue at the recital, it
all went smoothly till I was well over the weak spot, which, it seems, I
really played as Mendelssohn wrote it. As I neared the last page, the
question suddenly occurred to me, what had I done with that doubtful
passage? What had really happened I could not remember; and the effort
to recall whether I had played Mendelssohn or Stojowski nearly brought
disaster to that last page.
"As soon as my season closes here I shall go to London and bring out my
second piano concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra, under Nikisch.
I shall also play various recitals."
It was my good fortune to be present at the orchestral concert at
Queen's Hall, when Mr. Stojowski was the soloist. It was pleasant to
see the enthusiasm aroused by the concerto itself, and the performance
of it by the artist.
V
RUDOLPH GANZ
CONSERVING ENERGY IN PIANO PRACTISE
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