Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

284 MY MUSICAL EXPERIENCES
Later on, Hummel, then in Weimar, developed them
pianistically. Sechter, of Vienna, was his master in
harmony. It was in the last-named city that he
acquired a mastery both as a virtuoso and composer,
which was recognised there in the first instance, and
afterwards met with warm recognition in Weimar,
Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, and Warsaw. In the April
of 1838 he came to St. Petersburg, and was induced
to remain there for the rest of his life. The friend
and protege of three successive emperors, he found
in this city a congenial sphere of work, and never
afterwards left it, except during the few months of
summer-rest which he permitted himself to spend
every year in his country home at Warmbrunn. Ceas-
ing to take any part in the musical life of Germany,
gradually withdrawing himself, from all contact with
the younger generation, and ever more and more
retreating from all intercourse with his brother
artists, Henselt went on isolating himself until the
day arrived when he found that he was all but a
stranger in Germany, and only at last returned to lie
down and seek a final resting-place there.
He was still in full vigour when he entered into
correspondence with the writer of these lines. It
was in the spring of the year 1874. The first two
volumes of the ' Musical Portrait Studies ' had
reached a second edition, and a third volume was in
progress, in which a portrait of Henselt was to have
a place. I talked the matter over with Liszt, who