Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

48 MY MUSICAL EXPERIENCES
grace, the charm and the repose which perfect mastery
alone can give.
What wonder, then, if I was at once captivated by
the Liszt school in Sgambati, and all unconsciously
at first, but most consciously in a very few lessons,
gave myself up to the task of becoming a ' Lisztian-
erin,' with a zeal and devotion which Sgambati, in a
letter introducing me to Liszt some months later,
described as ' the enthusiasm of a neophyte who has
just embraced a new faith ' ? There was no more
thought then of going to Germany, for not only did
I hear Sgambati play when he gave me a lesson, but
I often met him in society, where he always played
and besides this, he never failed to let me know when
there were practices going on at his house, or rehearsals
at the Sala Dante, and he used to let me
stand beside him and turn over the leaves for him on
these occasions. The more I heard of his playing,
the more I strove with all my might to follow in his
steps, though ' afar off' ; and perhaps I might have
done so, though in a very limited sense, if Sgambati
had not unluckily suggested my taking out the
diploma of the St. Cecilia Academy. I say unluckily,
for a great part of the work which the candidate for
the diploma had to prepare was of a kind which I
could not afterwards utilize, and it kept me, more-
over, for a year and a half on a sort of strain that
was not stimulating, but quite the contrary. To pre-
pare up to metronomic time, and keep in practice the
;