SOME HINTS FOR THE CONCERT PLAYER

“The very first thing in playing in public is to free oneself of all distrust in one’s own powers.  To do this, nothing must be left to chance.  One should not have to give a thought to strings, bow, etc.  All should be in proper condition.  Above all the violinist should play with an accompanist who is used to accompanying him.  It seems superfluous to emphasize that one’s program numbers must have been mastered in every detail.  Only then can one defy nervousness, turning excess of emotion into inspiration.

“Acoustics play a greater part in the success of a public concert than most people realize.  In some halls they are very good, as in the case of the Cleveland Hippodrome, an enormous place which holds forty-three hundred people.  Here the acoustics are perfect, and the artist has those wonderful silences through which his slightest tones carry clearly and sweetly.  I have played not only solos, but chamber music in this hall, and was always sorry to stop playing.  In most halls the acoustic conditions are best in the evening.

“Then there is the matter of the violin.  I first used a Joseph Guarnerius, a deeper toned instrument than the Jean Baptista Guadagnini I have now played for a number of years.  The Guarnerius has a tone that seems to come more from within the instrument; but all in all I have found my Guadagnini, with its glassy clearness, its brilliant and limpid tone-quality, better adapted to American concert halls.  If I had a Strad in the same condition as my Guadagnini the instrument would be priceless.  I regretted giving up my Guarnerius, but I could not play the two violins interchangeably; for they were absolutely different in size and tone-production, shape, etc.  Then my hand is so small that I ought to use the instrument best adapted to it, and to use the same instrument always.  Why do I use no chin-rest?  I use no chin-rest on my Guadagnini simply because I cannot find one to fit my chin.  One should use a chin-rest to prevent perspiration from marring the varnish.  My Rocca violin is an interesting instance of wood worn in ridges by the stubble on a man’s chin.

“Strings?  Well, I use a wire E string.  I began to use it twelve years ago one humid, foggy summer in Connecticut.  I had had such trouble with strings snapping that I cried:  ‘Give me anything but a gut string.’  The climate practically makes metal strings a necessity, though some kind person once said that I bought wire strings because they were cheap!  If wire strings had been thought of when Theodore Thomas began his career, he might never have been a conductor, for he told me he gave up the violin because of the E string.  And most people will admit that hearing a wire E you cannot tell it from a gut E. Of course, it is unpleasant on the open strings, but then the open strings never do sound well.  And in the highest registers the tone does not spin out long enough because of the