FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132  
133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   >>   >|  
roll of octaves in chromatics in the bass of the piano. It was very grand and made the room reverberate. "Magnificent," said I. "Did you ever hear me do a storm?" said he. "No." "Ah, you ought to hear me do a storm! Storms are my forte!" Then to himself between his teeth, while a weird look came into his eyes as if he could indeed rule the blast, "Then crash the trees!" How ardently I wished that he would "play a storm," but of course he didn't, and he presently began to trifle over the keys in a blase style. I suppose he couldn't quite work himself up to the effort, but that look and tone told how Liszt would do it. Alas, that we poor mortals here below should share so often the fate of Moses, and have only a glimpse of the Promised Land, and that without the consolation of being Moses! But perhaps, after all, the vision is better than the reality. We see the whole land, even if but from afar, instead of being limited merely to the spot where our foot treads. Once again I saw Liszt in a similar mood, though his expression was this time comfortably rather than wildly destructive. It was when Fraulein Remmertz was playing his "E flat concerto" to him. There were two grand pianos in the room; she was sitting at one, and he at the other, accompanying and interpolating as he felt disposed. Finally they came to a place where there was a series of passages beginning with both hands in the middle of the piano, and going in opposite directions to the ends of the keyboard, ending each time with a short, sharp chord. "Pitch everything out of the window!" cried he, and began playing these passages and giving every chord a whack as if he were splitting everything up and flinging it out, and that with such enjoyment that you felt as if you'd like to bear a hand, too, in the work of demolition! But I never shall forget Liszt's look as he so lazily proposed to "pitch everything out of the window." It reminded me of the expression of a big tabby-cat as it sits by the fire and purrs away, blinking its eyes and seemingly half-asleep, when suddenly--!--! out it strikes with both its claws, and woe to whatever is within its reach! [Illustration: BEETHOVEN] LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN Melody has by Beethoven been freed from the influence of F
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132  
133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
passages
 

window

 

playing

 
BEETHOVEN
 

expression

 

concerto

 

ending

 

directions

 

keyboard

 

middle


series

 
Finally
 

interpolating

 
accompanying
 
disposed
 

pianos

 

beginning

 

sitting

 

opposite

 

suddenly


asleep

 

strikes

 

seemingly

 

blinking

 

Beethoven

 
influence
 

Melody

 

Illustration

 

LUDWIG

 

enjoyment


flinging

 

splitting

 
giving
 

reminded

 

proposed

 

lazily

 

demolition

 

forget

 

wished

 

presently


ardently
 
trifle
 

effort

 

couldn

 

suppose

 
reverberate
 

Magnificent

 
octaves
 
chromatics
 

Storms