Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

HENSELT 207
In this my first lesson with Henselt in St. Peters-
burg, I heard him for the first time in all his unveiled
radiance as a virtuoso; for the reader may remember
that it was on an upright Seiler that he had given
his lessons in T/V^armbrunn, and though, even on a
poor instrument, a great artist will make himself
felt, still, it is as if he speaks through a mask. I can
still recall the delight with which I listened to him
as he played Cramer's Studies on his pet instrument
(a concert grand Becker). He played Study No. 1,
which I have heard him play many times since, and
each time with increasing admiration and delight.
Indeed, any piece which the Meister 'professed to
play' always made me feel as I have done with no
other artist—that the whole essence of a lifetime lay
concentrated there for the moment, and that if—
supposing such an if possible—he had played no
other piece except just that one, he stood just by
that one performance on a height where none could
approach him. Study No. 1, as played by him, was
simply a marvel of lovely elastic tones— pearls of
unflawed beauty—and the whole floated in an atmo-
sphere of poetic charm. In No. 3, where the left
hand plays a two-part canto-firmo, the delicious fluid
song of the treble floated and wound itself round the
canto like some delicate arabesque round the shafts
of a fluted column.
Henselt was as much pleased with what I had been
doing as if he had received some rich gift for himself,.
-