Mason, William, 1829-1908; Musicians -- United States -- Biography
In this connection, I remember Rubinstein's telling me as long ago as
1873, in the artists' retiring-room during one of his recitals at
Steinway Hall, that he used in his boyhood's days "to do all sorts of
things with Chopin's etudes," as he expressed it, "in order to exercise
and strengthen the fingers." By way of illustration, he went to an
upright piano which happened to be in the room, and began playing with
his left hand alone the right-hand part of the chromatic-scale etude;
"Op. 10, No. 2," and this he did with fluency.
Godowsky has played his arrangements to me on several occasions at my
studio and at home _en famille_, and has invariably produced a state of
happy good humor which was of long duration and which in large measure
returns to me as I write.
April 20, 1901. Yesterday evening I attended the farewell concert of
Ossip Gabrilowitsch, the talented young Russian pianist. He was at his
best, and proved his right to stand in the front rank of modern
pianists. His playing throughout of a program of compositions of
Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, and Liszt was masterly, combining as it did
genuine musical quality, intelligence in phrasing, and great brilliancy,
as well as poetry in interpretation. He is yet a young man and has not
reached the full climax of his power, and will doubtless show still
further development in the next few years. Other pianists who have
played in New York during the season of 1900-01, and who deserve to be
classed with the highest, are Harold Bauer, who has deservedly won a
very high reputation through his splendid ability in all styles of piano
music, and Arthur Friedheim, whose recent concert was brilliant in high
degree, and who on that occasion gave an interpretation of Liszt's great
"Sonata in B Minor" which it seems to me was not surpassed by the master
himself--and I have heard Liszt play this work many times. Richard
Burmeister also gave a masterly interpretation of this same sonata
earlier in the season. This is the sonata, by the way, of which mention
has been made, in the earlier part of these "Memories," as having been
played by Liszt on the occasion of the first visit of Brahms to Liszt,
in the year 1853.
We have also had Teresa Carreno, Adele aus der Ohe, and Fannie
Bloomfield-Zeisler, all of them of the first rank and established
reputation. Of these the first-named is a friend of long standing, for
my first acquaintance with her dates back to the early sixties, when she
first came to New York as a child prodigy. I well remember the
impression she made upon me at that time, both from her artistic playing
and her charming appearance in short dresses and "pantalets," the
fashion for children of that day. A friendship was immediately begun and
established, which still continues.
Josef Hofmann, with his tremendous technic and executive skill, has
given pleasure to many; and Arthur Whiting, Howard Brockway, and Henry
Holden Huss have ably upheld the reputation of American virtuosos and
composers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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