rk with them, and for this I
must be quiet and by myself. An hour's actual playing at the piano each
day is sufficient to prepare for a recital.

"It must not be thought that I do not study very seriously. I do not
work less than six hours a day; if on any day I fail to secure this
amount of time, I make it up at the earliest moment. During the summer
months, when I am preparing new programs for the next season, I work
very hard. As I said, I take the difficult passages of a composition and
make the minutest study of them in every detail, making all kinds of
technical exercises out of a knotty section, sometimes playing it in
forty or fifty different ways. For example, take the little piece out of
Schumann's _Carneval_, called 'The Reconnaissance.' That needed study. I
gave three solid days to it; that means from nine to twelve in the
morning, and from one to five in the afternoon. At the end of that time
I knew it perfectly and was satisfied with it. From that day to this I
have never had to give a thought to that number, for I am confident I
know it utterly. I have never had an accident to that or to any of my
pieces when playing in public. In my opinion a pianist has a more
difficult task to accomplish than any other artist. The singer has to
sing only one note at a time; the violinist or 'cellist need use but one
hand for notes. Even the orchestral conductor who aspires to direct his
men without the score before him, may experience a slip of memory once
in awhile, yet he can go on without a break. A pianist, however, has
perhaps half a dozen notes in each hand to play at once; every note must
be indelibly engraved on the memory, for one dares not make a slip of
any kind.

"An artist playing in London, Paris or New York--I class these cities
together--may play about the same sort of programs in each. The
selections will not be too heavy in character. In Madrid or Vienna the
works may be even more brilliant. It is Berlin that demands heavy, solid
meat. I play Bach there, Beethoven and Brahms. It is a severe test to
play in Berlin and win success.

"I have made several tours in America. This is a wonderful country. I
don't believe you Americans realize what a great country you have, what
marvelous advantages are here, what fine teachers, what great
orchestras, what opera, what audiences! The critics, too, are so well
informed and so just. All these things impress a foreign artist--the
love for music that is here, th