Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

226 MV MUSICAL EXPERIENCES
time in complimentary salutations. But to return
to Hummel's B Minor Concerto. When I went to
play it to Henselt it had not been quite a fortnight
under my fingers, and I knew quite well that I was
only playing notes, and not music. But in a way
specially and provokingly Jiis own he observed, ' Yes !
study that piece one may, and long enough too;
but to play it—that is another thing !' And then
he motioned me from the piano, and, a wonderful
artistic mood coming over him, he played it as I
knew full well that I should never hear it played
again. That day he also played his own beautiful
concert-study, Danklied nach Sturm. There was
in Henselt's playing an element of pathos so deep,
so tender, that in hearing him play the Danklied
I was quite overcome by emotion, and being, like
all English people, very averse to showing my feelingS)
I was very angry with myself, and tried to move away
from beside the piano without being observed by the
Meister. He, however, having no idea why I was
moving away from beside him, called out in an angry
tone, ' Stay quiet, please ; stay where you are, and
don't move away.' When he had finished he turned
slightly round, and as I was looking right away from
him, I felt rather than saw that he smiled to himself,
and, beginning the piece again, he played it right to
the end once more, thus giving me time to recover my
self-possession. Those sweet and clear and most thril-
ling tones seemed to come right from his very heart-