"From the very first I adopted a position of hand which seemed to me
most convenient and comfortable, and no amount of contrary instruction
and advice has ever been able to make me change it. I play scales and
passages with low hand and flat fingers because that position seems the
most favorable for my hand. When practising, I play everything very
slowly, raising my fingers high and straight from the knuckle joint.
This gives me great clearness and firmness. In rapid passage work the
action is reduced, but the position remains. I am said to have a clear,
pearly touch, with quite sufficient power at my command for large works.
"After five years of study with my first teacher, Rudolph Heim, a pupil
of Moscheles, I entered the Moscow Conservatory, and continued my
studies under Professor Pabst, brother and teacher of the composer of
that name. I was then ten years old. Professor Pabst was very
conservative, very strict, and kept me at work on the music of the older
masters. This kind of music suits me, I think; at least I enjoy it. Even
here I still clung to my ideas of holding my hands and of touching the
keys, and always expect to do so.
"I remained with this professor about six years and then began my public
career.
"You ask about my present studies, and how I regulate my practise.
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