Mason, William, 1829-1908; Musicians -- United States -- Biography
The third day of the festival we called on Liszt, who was then living in
the Hotel zum Erbprinzen, and were received most cordially. Schlesinger,
the Paris publisher, was there with his little daughter, who was
precocious as a pianist and played several Chopin waltzes. Liszt was
very busy with his guests, so that our visit was limited, and nothing
was said about my coming to Weimar to study except that Liszt said he
never received pupils for regular lessons, but that those who lived in
Weimar (and there were only three or four in those days) had frequent
opportunities of hearing and meeting artists who visited him. Having
misinterpreted his letter, I accepted these remarks as a further
politely worded refusal to receive me. So I returned to Leipsic to
continue my studies there.
ARRIVAL AT LEIPSIC
I well remember the feeling of awe mingled with interest with which I
looked upon every German whom I met in the streets of Leipsic on my
first arrival in that famously musical city. I looked on even the
laboring-men, the peasants as well as those in higher positions, as
being Mozarts and Beethovens, and the idea gained such ascendancy that I
felt my own inferiority and metaphorically held down my head. This
feeling, however, was not of long duration, and changed in the course of
a month or two on account of what happened at a concert of the Euterpe
Society which I attended. The concerts of this musical society were
second only to those of the famous Gewandhaus, and their audiences were
made up largely of those who attended the concerts of the latter. At
this concert the program was classical and unimpeachable as to the
orchestral concerted pieces, but one of the numbers was a solo for
clarinet. At my age I was disposed to look down on this as an inferior
kind of music, and as decidedly unsuitable to an educated and musically
cultivated taste. Therefore, when, to my surprise, this turned out to be
the most popular piece of the evening and received the most vociferous
applause of the entire audience, I found my high opinion of the select
musical taste of the Germans sensibly decreased.
Since then I have learned that there is a place for everything good in
its way; but the clarinet solo seemed out of place in the classical
atmosphere of a symphony concert.
MOSCHELES, BEETHOVEN, AND CHOPIN
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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