Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

S/R STERNDALE BENNETT
experiment was, however, an utter failure. Sterndale
Bennett did not seem to observe the slowness of my
movements, and the conclusion to which both of us
came after that day was that, however numerous and
pressing his business engagements might be, it was
either a need— a deep-seated instinct of Sterndale
Bennett's nature—or a rule which he had laid down
for himself, not to let these encroach on the gentle
courtesies of life.
It is with a sense of wonder at what his memory
must have been that I look back and remember that
he never seemed to have forgotten any piece I had
ever studied with him. It was one of his habits to
ask for some piece which I had perhaps not played
for weeks ; and if I tried to avoid playing it by the
excuse, 'But I have not played it lately,' 'No
matter,' he would say, in his gentle, but for all that
singularly authoritative way; 'you shall play it
now.'
In speaking of learning pieces quickly, sight-
reading, etc., I have heard him say more than once,
' No
one can form a true idea of what a pianist's
attainments are who has not heard him in music with
which he has been familiar for years.'
And again, reverting to the question of time in
music, and especially in the old classical composers,
he often repeated that there was more gain than loss
in taking a movement somewhat slowly. On one occa-
sion I remember I was playing Beethoven's Sonata,