Mme. Busoni now invited us to inspect other parts of the house.  We passed to the adjoining room, which contains many rare old prints and paintings and quaint old furniture—­“everything old,” as Mme. Busoni said, with a smile.  In this room stands a harpsichord, with its double keyboard and brilliant red case.  It is not an antique but an excellent copy made by Chickering.

Farther on is a veritable musician’s den, with upright piano, and with a large desk crowded with pictures and mementoes.  On the walls hang rare portraits chiefly of Chopin and Liszt.  Beyond this room came the salon, with its two grand pianos side by side.  This is the master’s teaching and recital room, and here are various massive pieces of richly carved furniture.  Mme. Busoni called our attention to the elaborate chandelier in old silver, of exquisite workmanship, which, she said, had cost her a long search to find.  There are several portraits here of the composer-pianist in his youth—­one as a boy of twelve, a handsome lad—­bildschoen, with his curls, his soulful eyes and his big white collar.

Busoni soon joined us in the salon and the conversation was turned to his activities in the new field.

“When you have finished the new rhapsodie you will come and play it to us in America—­and in London also,” he was urged.

“Ah, London!  I am almost homesick for London; it is beautiful there.  I am fond of America, too.  You know I lived there for some years; my son was born there; he is an American citizen.  Yes, I will return, though just when I do not yet know, and then I will assuredly play the rhapsodie.”

XVIII

ADELE AUS DER OHE

ANOTHER ARTIST AT HOME

Another opportunity to see the home of an artist was afforded me when Frl.  Aus der Ohe invited me to visit her in her Berlin home.  She also lives in the newer western portion of the city, where so many other artists are located.  One feels on entering the spacious rooms that this home has the true German atmosphere.  Adele Aus der Ohe, whose personality is well remembered in America, on account of her various pianistic tours, now wears her brown hair softly drawn down over her ears, in Madonna fashion, a mode which becomes her vastly.

“My time is divided between playing in concert, composing, and my own studies,” began the artist.  “I give almost no lessons, for I have not time for them.  I never have more than a couple of pupils studying with me at one time; they must be both talented and eager.  The amount of time I consider necessary for practise depends, of course, on quickness of comprehension.  In general, I may say four, or at most five hours are quite sufficient, If used with absolute concentration.  The quality of practise is the great essential.  If the passage under consideration is not understood, a thousand times going over it will be only vain repetitions; therefore, understand the construction and meaning of the passage in the beginning, and then a thousand repetitions ought to make it perfect.