Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

DEPPE AND SCHARWENCKA 125
air of self-consciousness. She went straight up to
Herr Deppe and put a sheet of paper into his hands,
on which was written a hst of the pieces she was
about to play. He, glancing at it, asked her which
piece she intended to play first. ' Whichever you
please, Herr Kapellmeister,' was the reply. He then
named the piece with which she was to begin, ob-
serving in a very pleasant tone, as he took out his
watch and looked at it, 'It takes just so many
minutes to play.' Fraulein went over then at once
to the piano and seated herself at it,. laying, as she
did so, all the music she was going to perform on the
instrument beside her. She played most admirably
—every single tone ringing out with delicious clear-
ness—several of Bach's Preludes and Fugues, an Im-
promptu by Schubert, and a Sonata of Beethoven, etc.
The deep, simple, and genuine expression which
characterized her reading of the adagio in the latter,
inspired me with the most profound respect for the
teacher who had such a beautiful conception of
Beethoven's ' divine yearning towards higher spheres.'
But I quite agree with Lenz, who more than once
says, in his Beethoven et ses trois styles, ' Mais il y
a des choses qit'on gate quand on en parte,-' and I
refrain from going into any ecstasies about the
music which I heard that morning. Suffice it that
while the young girl was playing I kept saying
to myself, ' That is what pianoforte-playing was
meant to be, ought to be—a clear, unaffected reading