Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

HENSELT 169
After dinner Henselt went at once upstairs to his
sanctum, which consisted of three rooms en suite on
the first floor. The first of these (the ante-room) was
a httle salon, where he often had one or two gentlemen
in the afternoon to play whist with him—his one
special recreation during the summer interregnum
from his professional duties.
The grand piano, which stood in the middle room,
had been mute for years, he having had a sordine put
on it ; for he said he did not choose the neighbours
to know what he was doing. And here a word on the
subject of dumb pianos.
Sterndale Bennett had years before expressed, both
to my mother and me, his unqualified disapproval of
them. Sgambati, however, thought very differently,
and I have often heard him say that a dumb piano
ought to be used by everyone who aimed at playing
with perfect finish—his opinion being that no one
who can avoid it has any right to inflict on his
neighbours the annoyance of listening to that amount
of passage-practising from which no talent can dis-
pense any individual player. Henselt always used a
dumb piano for conquering technical difficulties ; he
said that doing so spared the nerves, and advised his
pupils to do the same. In St. Petersburg all the
lady-professors of his school with whom I became
acquainted invariably practised on instruments for
which they used two sets of sordines ; one which so
deadened and softened the sound as to render it