Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

128 My MUSICAL EXPERIENCES
pains to show me how to form every single tone,
using both finger-tips and wrist; and in the latter,
how to practise the prelude with displacement of
accent in order to give strength to the fingers. He
told me that I should do very well ; reminded me
again to bring my finger-tips well into action, and
sent me away feeling very much pleased.
Scharwencka's Conservatorium is looked on in
Berlin as a school of virtuosity, and many of the
pupils who had taken out their certificates at the
Hoch-schule went to him to get the last finishing
touches, and learn the effects suitable for concert-
playing. He was a very interesting teacher, and I
not only had private lessons from him, but I also
played in the large evening class, at which there were
not many performers, but many listeners (hospitanten),
who occupied seats wliich were placed close by the
wall all round the room. Scharwencka is a most
extraordinary reader, and seemed to have the power
of playing off at sight and in the most masterly
manner any piece one might bring to him. A gentleman
who had been his fellow- student m the Con-
servatoire of Kullak, told me that when he ceased to
study under Kullak, he had set himself with a most
iron determination to conquer every imaginable diflS-
culty which the pianoforte might present, and in
three years he had never flagged or faltered until he
had accomplished his purpose. His playing was,
as compared with Sgambati's, as sculpture when