meets, however, is ragged,
slovenly playing rather than stiff, rigid playing. To remedy this
slovenliness, there is nothing like the well-known works of Czerny,
Cramer or Clementi.

I have frequently told pupils in my "Meisterschule" in Vienna, before I
abandoned teaching for my work as a concert pianist, that they must
learn to draw before they learn to paint. They will persist in trying to
apply colors before they learn the art of making correct designs. This
leads to dismal failure in almost every case. Technic first--then
interpretation. The great concert-going public has no use for a player
with a dirty, slovenly technic no matter how much he strives to make
morbidly sentimental interpretations that are expected to reach the
lovers of sensation. For such players a conscientious and exacting study
of Czerny, Cramer, Clementi and others of similar design is good
musical soap and water. It washes them into respectability and technical
decency. The pianist with a bungling, slovenly technic, who at the same
time attempts to perform the great masterpieces, reminds me of those
persons who attempt to disguise the necessity for soap and water with
nauseating perfume.

HEALTH A VITAL FACTOR

Few people realize what a vital factor health is to the concert pianist.
The student should never fail to think of this. Many young Americans who
go abroad to study break down upon the very vehicle upon which they must
depend in their ride to success through the indiscretions of overwork or
wrong living. The concert pianist really lives a life of privation. I
always make it a point to restrict myself to certain hygienic rules on
the day before a concert. I have a certain diet and a certain amount of
exercise and sleep, without which I cannot play successfully.

In America one is overcome with the kindness of well-meaning people who
insist upon late suppers, receptions, etc. It is hard to refuse kindness
of this description, but I have always felt that my debt to my audiences
was a matter of prime importance, and while on tour I refrain from
social pleasures of all kinds. My mind and my body must be right or
failure will surely result.

I have often had people say to me after the performance of some
particularly brilliant number "Ah! You must have taken a bottle of
champagne to give a performance like that." Nothing could be further
from the truth. A half a bottle of beer would ruin a recital for me. The
habit of taking alcoholic