HUBAY AND AUER:  SOME COMPARISONS

“With whom did I study?  With two famous masters; by a strange coincidence both Hungarians.  First with Jenoe Hubay, at the National Academy of Music in Budapest, later with Leopold Auer in Petrograd.  Hubay had been a pupil of Vieuxtemps in Brussels, and is a justly celebrated teacher, very thorough and painstaking in explaining to his pupils how to do things; but the great difference between Hubay and Auer is that while Hubay tells a student how to do things, Auer, a temperamental teacher, literally drags out of him whatever there is in him, awakening latent powers he never knew he possessed.  Hubay is a splendid builder of virtuosity, and has a fine sense for phrasing.  For a year and a half I worked at nothing but studies with him, giving special attention to technic.  He did not believe in giving too much time to left hand development, when without adequate bow technic finger facility is useless.  Here he was in accord with Auer, in fact with every teacher seriously deserving of the name.  Hubay was a first-class pedagog, and under his instruction one could not help becoming a well-balanced and musicianly player.  But there is a higher ideal in violin playing than mere correctness, and Auer is an inspiring teacher.  Hubay has written some admirable studies, notably twelve studies for the right hand, though he never stressed technic too greatly.  On the other hand, Auer’s most notable contributions to violin literature are his revisions of such works as the Bach sonatas, the Tschaikovsky Concerto, etc.  In a way it points the difference in their mental attitude:  Hubay more concerned with the technical educational means, one which cannot be overlooked; Auer more interested in the interpretative, artistic educational end, which has always claimed his attention.  Hubay personally was a grand seigneur, a multi-millionaire, and married to an Hungarian countess.  He had a fine ear for phrasing, could improvise most interesting violin accompaniments to whatever his pupils played, and beside Rode, Kreutzer and Fiorillo I studied the concertos and other repertory works with him.  Then there were the conservatory lessons!  Attendance at a European conservatory is very broadening musically.  Not only does the individual violin pupil, for example, profit by listening to his colleagues play in class:  he also studies theory, musical history, the piano, ensemble playing, chamber-music and orchestra.  I was concertmaster of the conservatory orchestra while studying with Hubay.  There should be a national conservatory of music in this country; music in general would advance more rapidly.  And it would help teach American students to approach the art of violin playing from the right point of view.  As it is, too many want to study abroad under some renowned teacher not, primarily, with the idea of becoming great artists; but in the hope of drawing great future commercial dividends from an initial financial investment.  In Art the financial should always be a secondary consideration.