Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

I04 MY MUSICAL EXPERIENCES
by the piano, and I marked his eye, and the lines
round his expressive mouth, I was not surprised
when he said, after a minute or two, ' That is very
good, but I don't care to hear any more of it,' and
motioned her to pause and leave the piano.
On another occasion a fair youth, who wore long
hair, and had a dreamy and artistic- looking face,
began to play Liszt's own Fantaisie on Eigoletto,
and having accomplished a page or two, in which he
executed all the florid passages with faultless accuracy,
Liszt made him rise, and, playing a page or two of
the piece, then told him to go on. But after about
half a minute Liszt lifted the music from the desk,
with the observation, ' Das ist ganz pensionarisch ' (a
good school performance), adding in a satirical tone,.
' and very maidenly playing.' This young man was
at all the Liszt afternoons that summer, but did not
get the chance of playing again. "When Liszt held a
piece in his hand which had been brought by some-
one whom he did not care to hear, he would just give
a courteous nod to the individual who acknowledged
its ownership, and, laying it down again, would take
up another and ask whose that was. It has hap-
pened more than once that he has taken up several
pieces in succession and asked who was going to play
them, and put them down again before he came to
one which one of his especial favourites had placed
there. Sometimes, however, he did not wait for this,
but addressing Reisenauer, Silotti, or Katy Ranus-