Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

' Do
LISZT 103
you know to whom you have been playing ? You
have no business here. Go to the Conservatoire ; that
is the place for such as you.'
To my surprise, the young man did not leave the
room, but merely moved back among the others ; and
if he was at all sensitive, he must have been conscious
that he had spoilt that afternoon for the young girl
who played next after him. She was a mere child,
not yet sixteen, and was favoured by Liszt not only
because of her youth, but for the sake of her sister,
Fraulein Grosskurt, a most refined and charming
pianist, who played Chopin's nocturnes exquisitely.
On this day, however, Liszt absolutely clawed this
poor Uttle girl, to whom he was usually so gentle,
•that when there was any want of clearness in a
passage played by her, he would stop her with the
gentle reprimand, 'We don't want any neighbours
here, my dear ; play it again.' But the young man's
performance had stirred up Liszt's bile, and after
saying in an angry tone two or three times, ' We don't
wash dirty linen here,' he pushed the piece into her
hands and sent her away from the piano, and she got
into a far corner behind the others, to hide the tears
which she could not restrain.
An extremely handsome girl from the Leipzig
Conservatoire then sat down to play one of Chopin's
concertos, and seemed to be doing very well. Liszt
sat down twice to give her his reading of a passage,
and he did not appear dissatisfied ; but as he stood