“Sevcik did not like the Dvorak concerto and never gave it to his pupils.  But I lived next door to Dvorak at Prague, and meeting him in the street one day, asked him some questions anent its interpretation, with the result that I went to his home various times and he gave me his own ideas as to how it should be played.  Sevcik never pointed his teachings by playing himself.  I never saw him take up the fiddle while I studied with him.  While I was his pupil he paid me the compliment of selecting me to play Sinigaglia’s engaging violin concerto, at short notice, for the first time in Prague.  Sinigaglia had asked Sevcik to play it, who said:  ’I no longer play violin, but I have a pupil who can play it for you,’ and introduced me to him.  Sinigaglia became a good friend of mine, and I was the first to introduce his Rapsodia Piedmontese for violin and orchestra in London.  To return to Sevcik—­with all the deficiencies of his teaching methods, he had one great gift.  He taught his pupils how to practice!  And—­aside from bowing—­he made all mechanical problems, especially finger problems, absolutely clear and lucid.

                  A QUARTET OF GREAT TEACHERS WITH WHOM
                              ALL MAY STUDY

“Still, all said and done, it was after I had finished with all my teachers that I really began to learn to play violin:  above all from Ysaye, whom I went to hear play wherever and whenever I could.  I think that the most valuable lessons I have ever had are those unconsciously given me by four of the greatest violinists I know:  Ysaye, Kreisler, Elman and Thibaud.  Each of these artists is so different that no one seems altogether to replace the other.  Ysaye with his unique personality, the immense breadth and sweep of his interpretation, his dramatic strength, stands alone.  Kreisler has a certain sparkling scintillance in his playing that is his only.  Elman might be called the Caruso among violinists, with the perfected sensuous beauty of his tone; while Thibaud stands for supreme elegance and distinction.  I have learned much from each member of this great quartet.  And if the artist can profit from hearing and seeing them play, why not the student?  Every recital given by such masters offers the earnest violin student priceless opportunities for study and comparison.  My special leaning toward Ysaye is due, aside from his wonderful personality, to the fact that I feel music in the same way that he does.

TEACHING PRINCIPLES

’My teaching principles are the results of my own training period, my own experience as a concert artist and teacher—­before I came to America I taught in London, where Isolde Menges, among others, studied with me—­and what either directly or indirectly I have learned from my great colleagues.  In the Music College I give the advanced pupils their individual lessons; but once a week the whole class assembles—­as in the European conservatories—­and