I always carried around with me, I went
bravely through some Bach Inventions. When I finished, Pugno regarded me
with interest. He said he would teach me; told me to prepare some more
Inventions, some Czerny studies and the Mendelssohn Capriccio, Op. 22,
and come to him in four weeks. Needless to say, I knew every note of
these compositions by heart when I took my second lesson. Soon I was
bidden to come to him every fortnight, then every week, and finally he
gave me two lessons a week.

"For the first five years of my musical experience, I simply played the
piano. I played everything--sonatas, concertos--everything; large works
were absorbed from one lesson to the next. When I was about twelve I
began to awake to the necessity for serious study; then I really began
to practise in earnest. My master took more and more interest in my
progress and career: he was at pains to explain the meaning of music to
me--the ideas of the composers. Many fashionable people took lessons of
him, for to study with Pugno had become a fad; but he called me his only
pupil, saying that I alone understood him. I can truly say he was my
musical father; to him I owe everything. We were neighbors in a suburb
of Paris, as my parents' home adjoined his; we saw a great deal of him
and we made music together part of every day. When he toured in America
and other countries, he wrote me frequently; I could show you many
letters, for I have preserved a large number--letters filled with
beautiful and exalted thoughts, expressed in noble and poetic language.
They show that Pugno possessed a most refined, superior mind, and was
truly a great artist.

"I studied with Pugno ten years. At the end of that time he wished me to
play for Emil Saur. Saur was delighted with my work, and was anxious to
teach me certain points. From him I acquired the principles of touch
advocated by his master, Nicholas Rubinstein. These I mastered in three
months' time, or I might say in two lessons.

"According to Nicholas Rubinstein, the keys are not to be struck with
high finger action, nor is the direct end of the finger used. The point
of contact is rather just back of the tip, between that and the ball of
the finger. Furthermore we do not simply strive for plain legato touch.
The old instruction books tell us that legato must be learned first, and
is the most difficult touch to acquire. But legato does not bring the
best results in rapid passages, for it does not impart s