“An artist playing in London, Paris or New York—­I class these cities together—­may play about the same sort of programs in each.  The selections will not be too heavy in character.  In Madrid or Vienna the works may be even more brilliant.  It is Berlin that demands heavy, solid meat.  I play Bach there, Beethoven and Brahms.  It is a severe test to play in Berlin and win success.

“I have made several tours in America.  This is a wonderful country.  I don’t believe you Americans realize what a great country you have, what marvelous advantages are here, what fine teachers, what great orchestras, what opera, what audiences!  The critics, too, are so well informed and so just.  All these things impress a foreign artist—­the love for music that is here, the knowledge of it, and the enthusiasm for it.  A worthy artist can make a name and success in America more quickly and surely than in any country in the world.

“For one thing America is one united country from coast to coast, so it is much easier getting about here than in Europe.  For another thing I consider you have the greatest orchestras in the world, and I have played with the orchestras of all countries.  I also find you have the most enthusiastic audiences to be found anywhere.

“In Europe a musical career offers few advantages.  People often ask my advice about making a career over there, and I try to dissuade them.  It sometimes impresses me as a lions’ den, and I have the desire to cry out ‘Beware’ to those who may be entrapped into going over before they are ready, or know what to expect.  Of course there are cases of phenomenal success, but they are exceptions to the general rule.

“People go to Europe to get atmosphere (stimmung)—­that much abused term!  I could tell them they make their own atmosphere wherever they are.  I have lived in music all my life, but I can say I find musical atmosphere right here in America.  If I listen to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, or to the Kneisel Quartet, when these organizations are giving an incomparable performance of some masterpiece, I am entirely wrapt up in the music; am I not then in a musical atmosphere?  Or if I hear a performance of a Wagner opera at the Metropolitan, where Wagner is given better even than in Bayreuth, am I not also in a musical atmosphere?  To be sure, if I am in Bayreuth I may see some reminiscences of Wagner the man, or if I am in Vienna I can visit the graves of Beethoven and Schubert.  But these facts of themselves do not create a musical atmosphere.

“You in America can well rejoice over your great country, your fine teachers and musicians and your musical growth.  After a while you may be the most musical nation in the world.”

XXVIII

OSSIP GABRILOWITSCH

CHARACTERISTIC TOUCH ON THE PIANO

Arthur Hochman, Russian pianist and composer, once remarked to me, in reference to the quality of tone and variety of tonal effects produced by the various artists now before the public: