“I have also edited the Beethoven sonatas together with Rudolph Ganz.  He worked at the piano parts in New York, while I studied and revised the violin parts in Petrograd and Norway, where I spent my summers during the war.  There was not so much to do,” said Professor Auer modestly, “a little fingering, some bowing indications and not much else.  No reviser needs to put any indications for nuance and shading in Beethoven.  He was quite able to attend to all that himself.  There is no composer who shows such refinement of nuance.  You need only to take his quartets or these same sonatas to convince yourself of the fact.  In my Brahms revisions I have supplied really needed fingerings, bowings, and other indications!  Important compositions on which I am now at work include Ernst’s fine Concerto, Op. 23, the Mozart violin concertos, and Tartini’s Trille du diable, with a special cadenza for my pupil, Toscha Seidel.

AS REGARDS “PRODIGIES”

“Prodigies?” said Professor Auer.  “The word ‘prodigy’ when applied to some youthful artist is always used with an accent of reproach.  Public and critics are inclined to regard them with suspicion.  Why?  After all, the important thing is not their youth, but their artistry.  Examine the history of music—­you will discover that any number of great masters, great in the maturity of their genius, were great in its infancy as well.  There are Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Rubinstein, d’Albert, Hofmann, Scriabine, Wieniawski—­they were all ‘infant prodigies,’ and certainly not in any objectionable sense.  Not that I wish to claim that every prodigy necessarily becomes a great master.  That does not always follow.  But I believe that a musical prodigy, instead of being regarded with suspicion, has a right to be looked upon as a striking example of a pronounced natural predisposition for musical art.  Of course, full mental development of artistic power must come as a result of the maturing processes of life itself.  But I firmly believe that every prodigy represents a valuable musical phenomenon, one deserving of the keenest interest and encouragement.  It does not seem right to me that when the art of the prodigy is incontestably great, that the mere fact of his youth should serve as an excuse to look upon him with prejudice, and even with a certain degree of distrust.”

III

EDDY BROWN

HUBAY AND AUER:  TECHNIC: 
HINTS TO THE STUDENT

Notwithstanding the fact that Eddy Brown was born in Chicago, Ill., and that he is so great a favorite with concert audiences in the land of his birth, the gifted violinist hesitates to qualify himself as a strictly “American” violinist.  As he expresses it:  “Musically I was altogether educated in Europe—­I never studied here, because I left this country at the age of seven, and only returned a few years ago.  So I would not like to be placed in the position of claiming anything under false pretenses!