Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

40 MV MUSICAL EXPERIENCES
Finally, we heard a voice at the door, and then
Tausig, having been told that there were visitors in
his room, walked quickly in, and with a slight bow
approached us. My mother at once apologized for
being ' in possession of his sanctum,' and presenting
me to him as a pupil of Sterndale Bennett, asked
him, as an artist, not to send away such a devoted
lover of music without giving her the chance of hear-
uig him play once. She, in fact, told him in a few
words how we had in the first instance declined
tickets because we were leaving Berlin, and how
afterwards we had been told it was hopeless to think
of getting any. Tausig was both polite and kind, for
he at once said, ' I cannot sell tickets for my concert,
but I will with pleasure write an order which will
admit you and your daughter.' And as he bowed us
out at the door, he added with a smile :
' There are
no reserved seats, and it is, therefore, not in my
power to offer you and your daughter a place near the
piano.'
I refrain from passing any criticism on a perfor-
mance of which my then entire inexperience of
modern pianoforte-playing rendered me a very in-
competent judge. Suffice it, I was charmed, excited,
carried away by the electric emanation which is
always present in great artists. All sorts of wishes
welled up within me as I listened. ' If it were but
possible to stay in Germany, and have lessons from
such an artist !' was the thought which kept return-