Annette Hullah

“ He must follow the different kinds of touch, the pedalling, the fingering, the variety of effects that may be drawn out of the instrument—all so difficult and puzzling in the initial stages—and be able to reproduce them on the spot. The most vivid and concentrated interest is exacted from him in every detail, infinite patience and unwearied effort.
Leschetizky cannot endure half-heartedness. Caring so intensely for music and for all that concerns it, an apathetic attitude is as unbearable to him, as disloyalty to his country would be to a patriot, and he resents it with his whole nature. ”

“ Incidentally it is curious to compare with this Mendelssohn's description of a Berlin audience a few years earlier: "When a piece of music comes to an end, the whole company sit in solemn silence, each considering what his opinion is to be, nobody giving a sign of applause or pleasure, and all the while the performer in the most painful embarrassment not knowing whether, nor in what spirit, he has been listened to." ”

“ The Russians stand first in Leschetizky's opinion. United to a prodigious technique, they have passion, dramatic power, elemental force, and extraordinary vitality. Turbulent natures, difficult to keep within bounds, but making wonderful players when they have the patience to endure to the end.
The Pole, less strong and rugged than the Russian, leans more to the poetical side of music. Originality is to be found in all he does; refinement, an exquisite tenderness, and instinctive rhythm. ”

“ If he imagines any one to be endowed with a certain characteristic, nothing will dissuade him from the notion. Whether the person really has this quality or not is beside the question. Leschetizky's imagination is so strong that it entirely obliterates reality, and the idea that has taken hold of his mind for the time being becomes so fixed that argument to the contrary is worse than useless. ”

“ About four o'clock the lessons are over, and the Professor is ready for dinner; afterwards he usually goes to some café in the town, and often, if there are no billiards or cards at home, stays there chatting and smoking till long after midnight. The thought of a quiet evening at home fills him with dismay. Brilliantly-lit halls, bright colours, laughter, and gaiety are the very breath of life to him. He explores every form of entertainment, serious or frivolous, that he can find. He even enjoys a crowd. ”

“ The pupil having now gone through the necessary training to develop his hands and to apply them to the best result upon his instrument, and having learnt also how to study the music written for it, has arrived at the really interesting part of his work—the musical part.
Leschetizky seldom gives the greatest compositions to those whom he feels to be still immature. He sees the unfitness of expecting young, untried natures to deal with what is an expression of the deepest influences of life. They cannot understand. ”

“ At the time of Leschetizky's birth—1830—Vienna had just lost two of her greatest composers, Beethoven and Schubert, and for the moment no one remained to carry on her tradition as the home of great musicians. Schumann and Mendelssohn, it is true, came to and fro. Spohr had been there—Paganini, Vieuxtemps, Hummel, Meyerbeer, Cherubini, and a host of other executant-composers, including Liszt and Chopin. But no great composer was actually living there—nor was to live there for many years to come. Her creative spirit seemed to have gone to sleep and left her rich only in virtuosi. ”

“ Few people realise in what an inspiring atmosphere a great teacher's life is passed. The centre of an ever-changing stream of ardent young natures, filled with high aspiration, he is always in contact with the human being at its noblest and happiest, when life is still a fairy-tale, tinged with the promise of a marvellous future. ”

“ Though among the pioneers who actively interested themselves in its development as a means of popularising the study of music, Leschetizky was more taken up with pupils in particular than pupils in general. He sympathised to a certain extent with Rubinstein's plans for the improvement of the musical condition of the country; at the same time his nature, more individualist and less philanthropic than his friend's, preferred to work in a smaller field. He could devote himself heart and soul to watching and tending the unfolding of any young talent, but not to the education of the masses ”

“ Bound up in the service of their art, confident of reaching the goal they have promised themselves, these boys and girls form a constant inspiration to those who dwell in their midst, and make every other world seem prosaic and dull beside their own. Living in such a circle and finding therein all the novelty he needs, Leschetizky sees little of outside society now. ”

“ To describe a pianoforte method by the pen does as much good to the pianist as the "Absent Treatment" of a Christian Scientist does to his patient. Indeed, the treatment might, by a rare chance, cure a patient furnished with a fertile imagination; whereas no amount of imagination will make anybody play the piano, even if he read all the treatises written, from the naïve simplicity of Philip Emanuel Bach's "True Art of Piano Playing," to the wonderful complexity of Tobias Mathay, on "The Act of Touch."
With regard to methods in general, Leschetizky is very broad-minded. ”

“ In about eighty years both players and instruments had developed beyond recognition, virtuosity became an art in itself, and the piano so increased in importance that instead of being regarded as little worse than an accompaniment, it had become popular as a solo instrument, and long recitals, without the relief of song or strings, were given for it alone. ”

“ Transparent as a child, his face is the index of his mood. There—and indeed not only there, but in his whole figure, which unconsciously obeys the trend of his mind—his thoughts are inevitably reflected. ”

“ People are very ingenious in finding excuses when they do not want to play, or when they have played badly. "A bad instrument" is one of them. "Artists say too much about the materials they have to use," says Leschetizky. "It is hard to find the tools unresponsive or uncertain, but do not accustom yourselves to a first-rate piano. If you do, it will lead you to think you are responsible for the beautiful sounds that come out of it; whereas very likely it is but its natural tone—independent of your skill. At home you think: 'What a lovely touch I have.' Then you come to me. ”

“ Genius has called forth no system. It will express itself well, no matter what means it may elect to use.
Broadly speaking, Leschetizky's plan is to cultivate the pupil's special gifts, whatever they may be; to leave those things that lie beyond his capacity almost entirely alone. He prefers the narrower and more perfect field, to unfinished work on a large scale. ”

“ There is but one part of my teaching that may be called a "Method," if you like; and that is the way in which I teach my pupils to learn a piece of music. This is invariably the same for all, whether artist or little child; it is the way Mme. Essipoff studies, the way we study—and we have much talent."
With reference to technique, the gist of what Leschetizky considers physically necessary is this: the hand, wrist, and arm must be under such complete control that whatever part be called upon to play, it shall be able to do so independently of its neighbour. ”

“ A lack of exactitude in this [Pg 45] respect is the reason why so many people who can play quite well when they are alone are absolutely stranded before an audience. The presence of other people compels them to concentrate their attention on what they are doing, and they find they do not actually know what that is. When alone it will probably be of little consequence whether they know the music (in Leschetizky's interpretation of the word) or not; their fingers having acquired the habit of the notes, and their ears of the sound, generally suffice to carry them comfortably through. ”

“ Your hand is not under control, you have not learnt the principles of things. If you really know how to produce a certain effect—and produce it as the result of your knowledge—not [Pg 37] of your piano—you can face almost any instrument with a clear conscience. If you leave anything to chance, you will be the first to feel it—your audience will be the second. A good pianist should be able to make any passable instrument sound well, for his knowledge will be so accurate that he can calculate to a very fine point how much he must allow for the difference and quality of touch. ”

“ The sight of a dismal face affects his entire mood. He would ignore the darker side of things entirely, if he could. Not because his is a frivolous or superficial nature, merely varied by an occasional streak of earnestness, as the whimsical flitting to and fro of his fancies might suggest, but because he is a man upon whom has flashed at moments a certain comprehension of the unfathomable mystery of the world, and who would fain turn away from its solemn to its lighter aspects. ”

“ Like all people of strong constitution, he lives in continual expectation of death; a cold in his head—he is a doomed man; a little extra fatigue—his days are closing in; a slight cough—he is ready to say good-bye. But sympathy will do much to woo him back to health; a sweet face will tide him over the danger, and a good story even restore him to life. ”

“ Leschetizky makes unsparing use of his power to analyse character in his teaching, unhesitatingly saying anything, however hard to bear, that he thinks may be a spur to the pupil's development. He has the gift of insight to a very remarkable degree, and although his own nature is not pliable enough to unbend to every other, he makes few mistakes in his summing up as a whole. Like all highly-strung people he is extremely sensitive to personality. ”

“ In the morning when the door-bell announces the arrival of the first pupil, should the Professor chance to be in a fastidious frame of mind, he steals downstairs to find out who it is, and if on peeping surreptitiously into the room he sees some one antipathetic to him, he promptly steals upstairs again and stays there a quarter of an hour or more to recover the blow. ”

“ He thinks far too much is said about a conductor's difficulties. He protests also against "virtuoso-conducting." "Why should the orchestra rise? Why should so much be said about the way in which things are done? It is the composer who should have the applause, not the conductor." When a concert is over, he would have all the lights put out, the portrait of the composer thrown by a lantern on a screen, and make the audience applaud that. Leschetizky's own career as a conductor ended when Rubinstein came back to take up his position as "Janitor of Music" at the Court. ”

“ He does not think the world is made for genius. He sees that it is made for the ordinary man. Not in the least imbued with "that appreciation of mediocrity that the Creator of all things must evidently possess,"—as Ehlert puts it—he knows that those who can "reach the heaven" and "come back and tell the world" are very few, and it is the cry of the weaker talent that has to be answered, and for whom (unfortunately) methods must be worked out. ”

“ Leschetizky, even in the maturity of his [Pg 48] career, never practised more than three hours a day. He considers that four, or at most five hours, should be enough for any one. If it is not, the requisite qualities to make a pianist must be lacking. Hours and hours of practice do compel certain results in a shorter time than they could normally be produced, and, were the supply of energy unlimited, no one would hesitate to devote his entire day to practising, in order to shorten the road to the goal. ”

“ In truth a great many of the pupils themselves are gifted artists, who have already played in public and know enough to be appreciative in the most valuable sense.
In this respect it differs from all other pianoforte classes, in which, as a rule, the pupils have not yet emerged from the Conservatoire [Pg 69] shell into public life. Liszt's class was the nearest approach to it; but this again differed from it, inasmuch as Liszt's gathering was drawn together for the love of music, whereas Leschetizky's is entirely for the study of music. ”

“ A blind man on first recovering his sight can no longer locate himself. He does not know the meaning of his surroundings. The unaccustomed light has obliterated for the moment his only safeguard—the sense of touch—and so altered the condition of familiar things that they have become strange to him. ”

“ Leschetizky is of small build, extremely wiry [Pg 82] and highly-strung, magnetic from top to toe. The whole man is charged with electricity, which sparkles out of him whenever anything evokes it. He gives the impression of being the very essence of nervous force, rather than the possessor of great physical energy. A certain aristocratic spirit reveals itself in the fierceness of his eye, and in his short quick step. Of iron will, he waits for no man. ”

“ After the day's work is over he can entertain a table-full of people for several hours in the [Pg 78] evening, begin to play billiards at midnight, go to bed at 3 or 4 a.m., and turn up fresh for the lesson next morning at 12. After breakfast it is his habit to go out for an hour or so with his dog, not so much for the sake of exercise as to calm and refresh his mind. He does nothing special to keep himself elastic and vigorous; gymnastics, he says, are excellent in theory, but what intelligent person could possibly put them into practice? ”

“ What is required of him is, that he shall study every piece of music so thoroughly that he knows every detail in it, can play any part of it accurately, beginning at any point, and that he can visualise the whole without the music—that is, see in his mind what is written, without either notes or instrument. ”

“ Platitudes about the imperfection of human life, or the need of endurance, bore him inexpressibly. He cannot enter into the emotions of the middle-aged. Years have not in the least tempered the eagerness of his outlook. ”

“ The struggle merely serves to emphasise incapacity in one direction to the detriment of natural talents in others, and generally ends in making the player so nervous that the very thought of being asked to play overwhelms him with terror. ”

“ To another, whose ear was not fine enough to distinguish exactly what notes made up a chord when he heard it, Leschetizky taught an entire composition by playing it to him bar by bar, bit by bit, until he realised it all, both piecemeal and in combination. The harder the patient's case, the keener the doctor's interest. Nothing gives him greater satisfaction than to find the remedy for some unusual defect. ”