stopped. They brought him the music, he began for
the third time and then--the E string snapped! I do not think _any_
other than Sarasate could have carried off these successive mishaps and
brought his concert to a triumphant conclusion. He was a great friend of
mine and one of the most _perfect_ players I have ever known, as well as
one of the greatest _grand seigneurs_ among violinists. His rendering of
romantic works, Saint-Saens, Lalo, Bruch, was exquisite--I have never,
never heard them played as beautifully. On the other hand, his Bach
playing was excruciating--he played Bach sonatas as though they were
virtuoso pieces. It made one think of Hans von Buelow's _mot_ when, in
speaking of a certain famous pianist, he said: 'He plays Beethoven with
velocity and Czerny with expression.' But to hear Sarasate play romantic
music, his own 'Spanish Dances' for instance, was all like glorious
birdsong and golden sunshine, a lark soaring heavenwards!

THE NARDINI CONCERTO IN A

"You ask about my compositions? Well, Eddy Brown is going to play my
Second violin concerto, Op. 36 in B flat, which I wrote for the London
Philharmonic Society, next season; Elman the Nardini concerto in A,
which was published only shortly before the outbreak of the war. Thirty
years ago I found, by chance, three old Nardini concertos for violin and
bass in the composer's _original_ ms., in Bologna. The best was the one
in A--a beautiful work! But the bass was not even figured, and the task
of reconstructing the accompaniment for piano, as well as for orchestra,
and reverently doing justice to the composer's original intent and idea;
while at the same time making its beauties clearly and expressively
available from the standpoint of the violinist of to-day, was not easy.
Still, I think I may say I succeeded." And Mr. Nachez showed me some
letters from famous contemporaries who had made the acquaintance of this
Nardini concerto in A major. Auer, Thibaud, Sir Hubert Parry (who said
that he had "infused the work with new life"), Pollak, Switzerland's
ranking fiddler, Carl Flesch, author of the well-known _Urstudien_--all
expressed their admiration. One we cannot forbear quoting a letter in
part. It was from Ottokar Sevcik. The great Bohemian pedagogue is
usually regarded as the apostle of mechanism in violin playing: as the
inventor of an inexorably logical system of development, which stresses
the technical at the expense of the