| Show I I Ii STRfS ABOUT lST TOLD BY ON OF H PUPILS ILKA T7 A SO VITZB ARNA3T Wagner Burned Up All the Furniture Lags When Von Bulow Refused to Buy the Flrawood Ee Wanted Liszt was my teacher for many years and many are the charming recollections recollec-tions of that period in my life As Schuman said I you only heard Liszt play and didnt see him you lost half the pleasure so wonderful was his personality I shall never forget how a young Magyar tried to play a sonata of Beethoven Beeth-oven before him one day Piano piano cried Liszt Piano softly Let it sing let it sing Cant you see piano written there cried ht still more sharply but the young patriot only grew more nervous and played the harder At last Liszt took his hands from the keys saying halfangrily halflaugh ingly Do you know my young friend what the field sergeant does when the recruits cannot tell the difference differ-ence between right and l f He ties a bundle of straw on their right arms and a bundle of hay on their left and then gives the command Hay Straw We shall have to try this plan with you for piano and forte Now then give old Beethoven a chance Hay Hay Hay Tel Now Straw Straw Straw Plenty of straw still more straw and Liszt laughed till the tears came I Straw straw nothing but straw But even this had no effect on the young man so at last Liszt said Perhaps Per-haps I ca explain it better on the I piano And seating himself he played the allegretto of Beethovens seventh j symphony We were all so moved that j I we sat breathless until at flist a little I Russian woman jumped up and ushed out c the room crying Jai peur jai peur Liszt turned around on his chair to say Well whats the matter mat-ter and after he learned he turned to the young pianist So you see my I friend that hay and straw in proper proportion produce good results WAGNER WAS CHILLY Here Is an anecdote of his early life as related by Liszt himself Richard Wagner Bulow and I were all quite young when ve lived together in Leipzig Leip-zig and had a good time That is I enjoyed myself but Wagner was already I ready fermenting with his political and philosophical ideas and our prosaic circumstances offered little ground for the idealists of the future We called Bulow Kritlkus and we especially Ialways feared his sharp tongue a little lit-tle Of course all of us had very little money but Wagner put our slender purse to great strains He could not bear moneyworries and we let him feel them as little a possible Once after a long autumn it became be-came cold very suddenly and Wagner with his nerves suffered from the sudden sud-den change in the temperature He demanded a heated room at once For two whole days the debate raged between be-tween him and Bulow a to the immediate imme-diate purchase of wood with our reduced re-duced purse 1 was not asked because Bulow knew that I would yield but he a treasurer contended that it was ridiculous to buy wood in the month of September But I am freezing said Wagner In a rage to which the inexorable inex-orable Bulow suggested that he go out and get warm by running or warm himself by his muse Laughing at his cheap spiteful advice Bulow and J went out But when we returned after ctvo hours we were thunderstruck to Qrd Wagner in the room heated to suffocation suffo-cation He sat at his writing table deep in his work His face fnee was very red f Where began Bulow but the words stuck In his throat foe 3 glance around tHe room showed him how Wasmer had helped himself Several chairs and our work tables Jay on the floor permanently crippled Wagner had cut off their leg and made the fire with them Bulow was speechless with rage But I stood at the door and laughed till the tears came at this in I t J genious way of helping oneself Bulow lamented that we would have to replace re-place the landladys chairs and tables and that we could not sit down or workWagner answered spitefully I I have what I needed Fellows like you I who do nothing but go walking need i neither chairs nor tables I you bad given me the money right off your valuable val-uable furniture would still be in exist I est ence you wished it so Firewood would have been cheaper Next day I I received a little money and bought firewood I fire-wood and new chairs and tables Wagner Wag-ner picked out the best for himself and I said to him laughingly Say you listen I am going to insure this new furniture against loss by fire immediately imme-diately |
