THE ART AND THE SCHOOLS

In reply to another question, Mr. Letz added:  “Great violin playing is great violin playing, irrespective of school or nationality.  Of course the Belgians and French have notable elegance, polish, finish in detail.  The French lay stress on sensuous beauty of tone.  The German temperament is perhaps broader, neglecting sensuous beauty for beauty of idea, developing the scholarly side.  Sarasate, the Spaniard, is a unique national figure.  The Slavs seem to have a natural gift for the violin—­perhaps because of centuries of repression—­and are passionately temperamental.  In their playing we find that melancholy, combined with an intense craving for joy, which runs through all Slavonic music and literature.  Yet, all said and done, Art is and remains first of all international, and the great violinist is a great artist, no matter what his native land.”

XIII

DAVID MANNES

THE PHILOSOPHY OF VIOLIN TEACHING

That David Mannes, the well-known violinist and conductor, so long director of the New York Music School Settlement, would be able to speak in an interesting and authoritative manner on his art, was a foregone conclusion in the writer’s mind.  A visit to the educator’s own beautiful “Music School” confirmed this conviction.  In reply to some questions concerning his own study years Mr. Mannes spoke of his work with Heinrich de Ahna, Karl Halir and Eugene Ysaye.  “When I came to de Ahna in Berlin, I was, unfortunately, not yet ready for him, and so did not get much benefit from his instruction.  In the case of Halir, to whom I went later, I was in much better shape to take advantage of what he could give me, and profited accordingly.  It is a point any student may well note—­that when he thinks of studying with some famous teacher he be technically and musically equipped to take advantage of all that the latter may be able to give him.  Otherwise it is a case of love’s labor lost on the part of both.  Karl Halir was a sincere and very thorough teacher.  He was a Spohr player par excellence, and I have never found his equal in the playing of Spohr’s Gesangsscene.  With him I studied Kreutzer, Rode, Fiorillo; and to know Halir as a teacher was to know him at his best; since as a public performer—­great violinist as he was—­he did not do himself justice, because he was too nervous and high-strung.

[Illustration:  DAVID MANNES, with hand-written note]

STUDYING WITH YSAYE

“It was while sitting among the first violins in the New York Symphony Orchestra that I first heard Ysaye.  And for the first time in my life I heard a man with whom I fervently wanted to study; an artist whose whole attitude with regard to tone and sound reproduction embodied my ideals.