EMIL SAUER]

EMIL SAUER

BIOGRAPHICAL

Emil Sauer was born in Hamburg, Germany, October 8, 1862. His first
teacher was his mother, who was a fine musician, and who took
exceptional pains with her talented son. From 1879 to 1881 he studied
with Nicholas Rubinstein, brother of the famous Anton Rubinstein.
Nicholas Rubinstein was declared by many to be a far abler teacher than
his brother, who eclipsed him upon the concert platform. From 1884 to
1885 Sauer studied with Franz Liszt. In his autobiographical work, "My
Life," Sauer relates that Liszt at that time had reached an age when
much of his reputed brilliance had disappeared, and the playing of the
great Master of Weimar did not startle Sauer as it did some others.
However, Liszt took a great personal interest in Sauer and prophesied a
great future for him.

In 1882 Sauer made his first tour as a virtuoso, and met with such favor
that numerous tours of the music-loving countries ensued. The critics
praised his playing particularly for his great clarity, sanity,
symmetrical appreciation of form, and unaffected fervor. For a time
Sauer was at the head of the Meisterschule of Piano-playing, connected
with the Imperial Conservatory in Vienna.

(The following conference was conducted in German and English.)

XVIII

THE TRAINING OF THE VIRTUOSO

EMIL SAUER

One of the most inestimable advantages I have ever had was my good
fortune in having a musical mother. It is to her that I owe my whole
career as an artist. If it had not been for her loving care and her
patient persistence I might have been engaged in some entirely different
pursuit. As a child I was very indifferent to music. I abhorred
practice, and, in fact, showed no signs of pronounced talent until my
twelfth year. But she kept faithfully pegging away at me and insisted
that because my grandfather had been a noted artist and because she was
devoted to music it must be in my blood.

My mother was a pupil of Deppe, of whom Miss Amy Fay has written in her
book "Music Study in Germany." Deppe was a remarkable pedagogue and had
excellent ideas upon the foundation of a rational system of touch. He
sought the most natural position of the hand and always aimed to work
along the line of least resistance. My mother instilled Deppe's ideas
into me together with a very comprehensive training in the standard
etudes and classics within my youthful technical grasp. For those years
I could not have had a be