Walker-My_Musical_Ex.. - Walter Cosand

68 A/r MUSICAL EXPERIENCES
approach the great man, on whom he evidently
wished me to make a favourable impression. ' With
regard to his compositions, should you get an oppor-
tunity of alluding to them, don't refer to those which
he has written for the pianoforte, for (though we
don't quite agree with him there) Liszt believes that
it is through his orchestral works that his fame will
be handed down to posterity.' 'But how can I do
this, for I have never heard any of Liszt's compo-
sitions for the orchestra ?' was my reply to Sgambati.
'Yes, but you have played arrangements of the
above, you know— Fest-Klange, les Preludes, also
Tasso and the Dante Symphony—and you can, at all
events, tell Liszt that you look forward some day to
the pleasure of hearing a complete orchestral per-
formance of these, perhaps in Germany ; and then,'
continued Sgambati, ' when he asks you to play to
him, don't rush over to the piano the minute he first
broaches the subject, but stand up, to show your
willingness to comply with his wishes, and then pause
a little, and get into chat, to show that, though
willing, you are not anxious to play to him.'
My sister and her little girl—a fragile creature then
just three years old—came out with me to Tivoli, and
leaving them both, in the first instance, at a little
inn in the village, I went (as advised by Sgambati)
to the Villa d'Este ; and, giving my letter of intro-
duction to Liszt's valet, I asked him what time I had
best call and pay my respects to the Master. He