Scan 10
Violin master works and their interpretation, 1925
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1INTRODUCTION.
3To express the inexplicable so that it can be understood, to define and segregate the experiences and reactions of musical emotion so that they may be grasped by the invisible eye of the spirit, is not easy. My aim is to offer the young violinist and student a legacy, a tangible evidence of my long years of experience as an interpreting artist and a teacher of the classic literature of the violin, with regard to the interpretation of the great works of the ancient as well as the modern masters.
5In my opinion the question of musical style is one that can be considered only from a purely individual standpoint: it is not possible to determine exactly how the Beethoven Concerto or the Bach Chaconne should be played. A hundred years ago and two hundred years ago people played, and heard with other ears than those of our own twentieth century, the age of the telephone and the radio. Our nervous system is a more irritable one than that of our great-grandfathers yet, though I am not a blind follower of tradition, there are certain principles of musical aesthetics which remain authoritative with regard to the interpretation of the classic masterpieces.
7The artist who unconsciously acknowledges and possesses these principles, provided he also commands the technique necessary to control all mechanical difficulties, will cause the work he is playing to impress the listener as it was meant to do. He will make his auditor feel its content in accordance with the intention of its creator. I always have found, even in the most provincial Russian cities, that any notable composition, when played in the proper manner, made a profound impression on the musically most uncultivated listener: he reacted to this impression, even though quite unconsciously.
9When we take an audience of several thousand persons gathered on some important occasion at Carnegie Hall, New York, or in one of the larger European concert halls, we are obliged to admit that a large proportion of these auditors, probably, are not musically educated. Yet how different are the impressions made on the audience as a whole by two different orchestral conductors or two different virtuosos, each presenting the same work! One conductor—and, strictly speaking, a conductor, too, is first of all a virtuoso—or instrumental virtuoso will rouse an audience to enthusiasm by his presentation of a
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