safe, in which it had been put, and to which he only had the combination, was locked.  Caressa himself was in Milan.  I telegraphed him but found that he could not get back in time before the concert to release my violin.  So I telegraphed Ysaye at Namur, to ask if he could loan me a violin for the concert.  ‘Certainly’ he wired back.  So I hurried to his home and, with his usual generosity, he insisted on my taking both his treasured Guarnerius and his ‘Hercules’ Strad (afterwards stolen from him in Russia), in order that I might have my choice.  His brother-in-law and some friends accompanied me from Namur to Ostende—­no great distance—­to hear the concert.  Well, I played the Guarnerius at rehearsal, and when it was over, every one said to me, ’Why, what is the matter with your fiddle? (It was the one Ysaye always used.) It has no tone at all.’  At the concert I played the Strad and secured a big tone that filled the hall, as every one assured me.  When I brought back the violins to Ysaye I mentioned the circumstance to him, and he was so surprised and interested that he took them from the cases and played a bit, first on one, then on the other, a number of times.  And invariably when he played the Strad (which, by the way, he had not used for years) he, Ysaye—­imagine it!—­could develop only a small tone; and when he played the Guarnerius, he never failed to develop that great, sonorous tone we all know and love so well.  Take Sarasate, when he lived, Elman, myself—­we all have the habit of the Stradivarius:  on the other hand Ysaye and Kreisler are Guarnerius players par excellence!

“Yes, I use a wire E string.  Before I found out about them I had no end of trouble.  In New Orleans I snapped seven gut strings at a single concert.  Some say that you can tell the difference, when listening, between a gut and a wire E. I cannot, and I know a good many others who cannot.  After my last New York recital I had tea with Ysaye, who had done me the honor of attending it.  ‘What strings do you use?’ he asked me, a propos to nothing in particular.  When I told him I used a wire E he confessed that he could not have told the difference.  And, in fact, he has adopted the wire E just like Kreisler, Maud Powell and others, and has told me that he is charmed with it—­for Ysaye has had a great deal of trouble with his strings.  I shall continue to use them even after the war, when it will be possible to obtain good gut strings again.

THE IDEAL PROGRAM

“The whole question of programs and program-making is an intricate one.  In my opinion the usual recital program, piano, song or violin, is too long.  The public likes the recital by a single vocal or instrumental artist, and financially and for other practical reasons the artist, too, is better satisfied with them.  But are they artistically altogether satisfactory?  I should like to hear Paderewski and Ysaye, Bauer and Casals, Kreisler and Hofmann all playing at the same recital.  What a variety, what a wealth of contrasting artistic enjoyment such a concert would afford.  There is nothing that is so enjoyable for the true artist as ensemble playing with his peers.  Solo playing seems quite unimportant beside it.