Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

254 MY MUSICAL EXPERIENCES
ness of the feeling against Eubinstein at that time
among the middle-class Eussian professors, that
friendships of long standing were (at least for the
time being) dissolved by it.
I will give one instance here, but without naming
the individuals concerned in them. The sister of a
friend of mine was the wife of a Eussian professor,
who had known Eubinstein intimately for years.
This lady had received me with great kindness when
I first arrived in Eussia, and had often asked me if I
would like to accompany her to visit Madame Eubin-
stein, and be introduced to the great virtuoso; but
I had declined, because I knew, from friends of
Eubinstein whom I had met abroad, that he always
asked people who were musical to play to him.
' Every hand I see on the keyboard presents me with
a new problem,' he used to say ;
and I knew full well
that it would not have been interesting to him, nor
agreeable to myself, to hear one who was just getting
into a new school of technique; I therefore declined
her kind offer.
On my third visit to St. Petersburg, it seemed to
me rather a pity not to have once seen Eubinstein in
his own house, and I was no longer afraid of doing
Henselt's school injustice, even in playing before
Eubinstein. I therefore went to my friend, and told
her that the next tim'e she was paying a visit to the
Eubinsteins I would be very glad to accompany her.
But the stars had otherwise decreed. My friend,