The San Francisco call., 1904-03-02
BAUER MASTER
OF THE PIANO
His Tone Pre-eminently Dis
tinguishes Him as an Art
ist on Difficult instrument

The piano is a stubborn jade, diff
cult damosel. How difficult, how SUI
perbly fastidious, one realizes only.
when the Harold Bauers come along.
She yields a little with so de-
ceitful frankness. Much is granted also
to the fervent worship of her thousands.
But the little more, the tremendous lit
tie more, that makes the essential diff
ference, she yields only to the one in.
ten thousand. Harold Bauer is one such
The thing of wood and wire, felt and
ivory that we know so well, lashed into
hard rhapsodies, whipped into wooden
preludes, slapped into fiat nocturnes,
becomes under his hands a supple, iv-
ing body, capable of an infinite sensf-
tiveness of song. One can't feel the
wheels go round, for they seem TO have
vanished into thing Of nerve and
blood, a vocal creature. For his tone it
is that pre-eminently distinguishes Mr..
Bauer as a master of his instrument
The pianist-it should have been re-
marked before-made a most fortu-
nate debut last evening at Lyric Hall.
He is Immediately likable. His fine
name, obstinately curled, is Mr.. Bauer's
sole pianistic concession and his man..
ner is cordial simplicity itself. He is alb
solutely without pose, and obtains tech
nicaI tours de force with marvelOusly
little obvious effort. Mr.. Bauer's first
number was the MendelssOhn Pre-
lude and Fugue in + minor, than
which nothing more indicative of his
resources was given. His tone, as be-
fore said. is his most distinctive char
acteristic. Round, absolutely without
corners or edge, as pure in the fullest
forte as in his Iightest pianissimO, it
sings throughout. And this is only
one side of the artists equipment.
The handling of the first few meas
ures of the Mendelssohn made evil
dent the fact that here was pianist
at once scholarly and temperamental,
with a mental balance as. finely Just
as his emotional SENSE. The architec-
ture of the fugue was no less lovely.
than it's ravishing tone color outlined
with "a mastery intelligence. The
Schumann sonata (F sharp minor)
that came next, brought into promi-
nence the dramatic faculty of the
artist. How humorous and delicate
" fantastic the last movement, and
again full of the widest carnival
spirit! The andante. with its tense
emotion, held one breathIess. The
Chopin group again reminded one Of
De Pachmann-a larger De Pach-
MANN.
There was the De Pachmann grace
in the lighter passages. but with ii
massive strength, a professional gram
deur in the fuller moments that De
Pachmann hardly knew. The F sharp
minor nocturne exquisitely sung. and
-pedaled marvelously. formed another.
of the Chopin group. with a brilliant
handling of the c minor etude. that
was played again only because it
could not be twice repeated. One OF
the waltzes satisfied the imperious de-
mand for more.
The little Gluck- Brahms gavOtte
was another number it's staccato trio
most beautifully played. and the A
fiat imprOmptu of Schubert. and Me-
phisto waltz of List completed the
programme In the bravura spiendors
of the List, too. Mr.. Bauer was equal
ly compelling. His is. in truth. one
of the most finely rounded arts we
have been fortunate enough to know.
His technique is brilliant and su-
premely beautiful. His tone is Alto