Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

MY MUSICAL EXPERIENCES
spirits. It is with a sense of the deepest gratitude
that I now recall the enviable hours which I had the
good fortune to spend with you in St. Petersburg;
above all, the never-to-be-forgotten enjoyment which
fell to my lot when one day you were so good as to
let me listen to your incomparable playing. This has,
if I may so express myself, left a deep imprint on my
memory ; so much so that, in now resuming my
pianoforte studies after a long interruption, the
memory of what I then heard is a source from which
I draw most fruitful instruction and helpful stimulus.
May I at the same time be permitted to lay at your
feet a work in which I believe I have not only given a
useful guide to pianoforte literature as regards the
general public, but likewise a useful help for in-
structive purposes. If it meets with your approbation
it will be a great pleasure to me, but I in no way
count upon your expressing any open opinion with
regard to it. I may say, great Meister, that my life
has taught me how to estimate the great value of
time.
' It will interest you to hear that I found my father-
in-law. Dr. Franz Liszt, in the best of health and in
the full swing of productivity. During his short
visit to Germany last autumn my illness unfortu-
nately prevented me from bearing him company in
any of his various tours to Carlsbad, Wei'nar, and
Paris ; and the happiness of being with him for any
length of time—at all times seldom possible—was