Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-02-15
.LEsCHETSKY IS
AN ADMIR- Ter Of
j. s. PNN|STS
Master Who Taught Paderewski
and Fannie BIoOm6eId-ziesIer
Says They Need Only Taste.
Special Gable to The American.

Special Gable to The American.
VIENNA, Feb. 14.--In his beautiful
home on the outskirts of Vienna lives
and works the &c. o. M. of the piano, .
Theodore Leschetizky, the octogena-
Iian teacher of Paderewski, Essipoff
and Bloomfield -Zeisler.
Kindly, good humored, quick-tem
pered, his pupils love and fear him.
Most of them are Americans, and for
America Leschetizky has done more
than any living musician.
After the revolution of AS, many
Germans who emigrated to America
earned their living there by playing in
orchestras and giving music lessons"
he said recently. "They were musi-
cal, but most of them had not been
well taught. This lowered the stand
ard of musicianship in America, but
now that country is beginning to
reach the heights in music it has long
held in other arts and sciences"
Found" Chopin.
Born in 1881, Leschetizky played,
when still child, the compositions of
the then almost unknown Chopin.
a critic once wrote, Young Les
chetizky has pressed another young
Pole to his heart, Frederic Chopin, -
but Leschetizky himself said: His
compositions are like violets one buys
of the old woman on the Graben.
They are real violets and they smell
like violets, too. You smell again.
All. no. that is the French violet wa
ter"
NJ Leschetizky went on to speak of
the great musicians he had known
end taught.
"Paderewski," he said. sis a great
pianist. but he is only a second rate
composer. He has turned sessionist.
Too bad, too bad!"
Dislikes Strauss.
Speaking of Richard Strauss, whose
family he had known for generation
or more, he said. contemptuously
"Dilettante is the name for his talent
First-rate work he has never even
his real forte. 'Rosencavalier' is not
an original work, for the best things
in it are from Johann Strauss. Elec-
ira is an hour and half of pure dis
gust Gresslich!
II hear people speak of the Les
chetizky method but in my view there
is no such thing as method
applied rules of pedagogy and great
deal of thinking; that is the way
everything in the world is taught,
from cooking to astronomy"
Leschetizky has been married and
divorced three times.
Rubnstein's Friend.
Speaking of Rubinstein, the master
said:
1--WE were the best of friends We
seemed to have but one heart, one
soul. We were never apart, and lived
in the same house for many years in
St. Petersburg. The last time my
dear friend played it was in my house
there
1T was at one of the regular Sun
day classes and nowhere could we
find the artist He was hiding in the
torture chamber (where the pupils
wait for their lessons). He was white
as a gdost No, he wasn't sick. 1t
was sheer fright. He had never played
before so many musicians before.
There were no less than so artists
there
Until I heard Cassels l missed Ru
binstein's playinfi. Cassels is Ru-
binstein returned to the cello. He
is the greatest artist living. My
American pupils call me their master
Lesch, and personally l get on we'll
with them"
Fond of Ragtime.
The master is fond of their play
ing. fonder still of their ragtime, and
loves, best of all, their dollars.
THE only thing they need. and
they need it badly" he says. lis
taste" He says they always say
and he mimics them in his broken
English-"I want to play Chopang, l
want to play the Moonlight Sonata 4"
But he loves best of all to sit in
the torture chamber" where all have
trembled in their turn, and look
through the album containing photo
graphs of his old pupils of whom so
many are Americans