The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-10-03

touch in q marvelously short time.
To some pupils he teaches peculiar
method of lingering the scales. which is very
difficult, but which, once mastered, gives tnt
gleatest fexibility of wrist and fingers. Be
fore ever thought of taking lessons OF him,
heard of it through former pupil Of his, and
arrived at tolerable degree Of proficiency.
One day, when Madame L. and were TO-
gether, he came in, and the conversation
turned in some way on his skill as pianist.
As usual, we got into a joking vein, and,
finally, told him that he wanted a few lessons
| from me to perfect him. 1 then sat down to
the piano, and ran over few of the scales
with his lingering, telling him that he must
learn that style Of thing before he could ever
expect to be pianist. He laughed, and said
"Ah, then, you know that way of lingering
You have done it we'll, and deserve some
thing" and he laid sou at my side on the
PIANO.
A few minutes afterward played waltz Of
Henselt's He was talking at the time with
Madame l.. He stopped as went on, lister
ing most attentively, and when I had finished,
he said: ''For that you deserve more" al d
laid down five francs. Then he became
serious, and spoke of my small performance
most amiably. felt very much elated, for
the slightest word of appreciation from him is
treasured up with misery care by those who
are happy enough to obtain it. This was the
first time had ventured to play in his pres
ence, and nervous enough l was about it. In
deed, never could play to him without GER
tain amount of fright, even during the lessons
ward; and all his pupils were affected in the
same way.
Buonamici, young Florentine of most
promising talent, professor of music, who
was in the habit of playing constantly in pub
lie, told me that he never took lesson of him
without horrible nervousness possessing
him, which greatly interfered with his per-
Torrance. I told Won Bulow one day, during
one of my lessons, that I always felt as if l
was going to the dentist whenever I entered
his rooms to 60 through my studies with him.
Whereupon he was delighted, and seized the
tongs, brandishing them over his head in the
most ferocious way, and making as If he was
about to pull all my teeth out on the spot
This was merely one of his sudden flashes OF
fun, and in the twinkling of an eye it was all
over, and he had settled down to serious
work During his lessons, as said before,
his attention never swerves for a moment,
and more painstaking instruction, even with
uninteresting pupils can not be imagined.
He is very careful and judicious in his
praise, and is rather sparing of it, making it,
of course, all the more valuable to the proud
receiver. This rare commentator does not
always tend to good morally, whatever it may
do muscally, for it often causes vanity IN
those commended, and envy in the others.
His memory is prodigious. He plays every
thing without notes, and his repertoire is
very large one. I heard that he had been
known to say that no one was a thorough
pianist who was not able to play eighty pieces
T ocEnI hi m If ho raollu bod
said this mo-" he replied, 81 did not;
said that a good musician should know over
one hundred"
have been to many rehearsals and con-
certs when he was directing an orchestra of
eighty musicians, but I never saw the score
before him. He knows the part of each in
and when correcting mistake in
any one of them, if unable to make his mean
ing understood in words, he darts to the
piano like fash, and plays the part as he
wishes it done. His energy and passion
when directing are magnificent. He is SO
carried away by enthusiasm that it reaches
every member of the orchestra, and every
of his arm is so graphic that 1t
would be almost impossible not to seize his
idea at once, and act on it. The proof of
this is, that he can take an orchestra which
he has never drilled before or even musicians
who have never played together, and in three
or four rehearsals bring them into perfect
order.
As director and teacher he is incom-
parable. As pianist he is also very great,
being considered by good judges, as has
been already said, to be the greatest after
Liszt. He is most earnest in his study of
the great masters, rendering their music care
fully and conscientiously, but without ped
antry One never tires of hearing him, for
he does not adopt any particular ine-a
wearisome thing, whether it be of the thun-
dering order like De Meyer, or the pearly,
dew-droppy sort of thing that Gottschalk
delighted in. He simply carries out the
spirit of the composer, and SO thorough
an artist is he, and so genuine his love of
music, that my firm belief is that his efforts
are directed toward interesting his hearers
more in the composer than in the performer.
Such men are in sad minority. Had we
more of them, the cultivation of good music
would increase more rapidly than it does.
At his first public performance in Florence,
Won Bulow was 50 distressed that the audience
should have begun their applause before he
finished the last notes, that he held up his
hand deprecatingly and, when silence was
restored, carefully and scrupulously COM
pleted the sonata.