Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

LISZT 105
chewitz, he would say, ' Is there no piece here which
you, or you, or you are going to play to me to-day ?'
On the afternoon when Liszt had been so angry
with the young man who bungled so in the polonaise,
he recovered his good-humour as soon as Eeisenauer
began to play. As well as I can remember, this fine
pianist played some of Liszt's Liehestrdume that
afternoon, and Fraiilein Emma Koch, a pupil of
Scharwencka (since then established in Berlin, where
she has given concerts more than once with great
success), took up the set in these charming pieces,
and continued where he left off. Another afternoon
a gentleman began to play a polonaise of Chopin's,
and by the way Liszt's eye rested on him, as he
seated himself at the piano, even a superficial ob-
server could have seen that the Meister had taken a
personal and, to my thinking, a most unjust anti-
pathy to the player. The latter was young, and
evidently very nervous and sensitive. There was no
lack of swing and go in his performance, but his
reading of the piece (to use a mild term) did not
please Liszt, who twice impatiently motioned him to
get up from the piano, and, playing part of the
polonaise himself, he bade the young man to continue
playing it in that manner. On the third time of
doing so, however, Liszt quite lost his temper, and
called out in an angry and imperious manner, ' What
sort of playing is that? Playing indeed!' and so
saying, he took the player's seat at the piano and