XVIII
ALEXANDER SASLAVSKY
WHAT THE TEACHER CAN AND CANNOT DO
Alexander Saslavsky is probably best
known as a solo artist, as the concertmaster of
a great symphonic orchestra, as the leader of
the admirable quartet which bears his name.
Yet, at the same time, few violinists can speak
with more authority anent the instructive
phases of their Art. Not only has he been active
for years in the teaching field; but as a
pedagog he rounds out the traditions of
Ferdinand David, Massard, Auer, and Grün
(Vienna Hochschule), acquired during his
"study years," with the result of his own long
and varied experience.
Beginning at the beginning, I asked Mr.
Saslavsky to tell me something about methods,
his own in particular. "Method is a flexible
term," he answered. "What the word should
mean is the cultivation of the pupil's individuality
along the lines best suited to it. Not
that a guide which may be employed to develop
common-sense principles is not valuable.
But even here, the same guide (violin-method)
will not answer for every pupil. Personally I
find De Bériot's 'Violin School' the most generally
useful, and for advanced students,
Ferdinand David's second book. Then, for
scales—I insist on my pupils being able to play,
a perfect scale through three octaves—the
Hrimaly book of scales. Many advanced violinists
cannot play a good scale simply because
of a lack of fundamental work.
"As soon as the pupil is able, he should take
up Kreutzer and stick to him as the devotee
does to his Bible. Any one who can play the
'42 Exercises' as they should be played may be
called a well-balanced violinist. There are
too many purely mechanical exercises—and the
circumstance that we have Kreutzer, Rode,
Fiorillo, Rovelli and Dont emphasizes the fact.
And there are too many elaborate and complicated
violin methods. Sevčik, for instance,
has devised a purely mechanical system of this
kind, perfect from a purely mechanical standpoint,
but one whose consistent use, in my opinion,
kills initiative and individuality. I have
had experience with Sevčik pupils in quartet
playing, and have found that they have no expression.
WHAT THE TEACHER CAN AND CANNOT DO
"After all, the teacher can only supply the
pupil with the violinistic equipment. The pupil
must use it. There is tone, for instance. The
teacher cannot make tone for the pupil—he
can only show him how tone can be made.
Sometimes a purely physiological reason makes
it almost impossible for the pupil to produce
a good natural tone. If the finger-tips are
not adequately equipped with 'cushions,' and a
pupil wishes to use the vibrato there is nothing
with which he can vibrate. There is real meaning,
speaking of the violinist's tone, in the
phrase 'he has it at his fingers' tips.' Then
there is the matter of slow practice. It rests
with the pupil to carry out the teacher's injunctions
in this respect. The average pupil practices
too fast, is too eager to develop his Art as
a money maker. And too many really gifted
students take up orchestra playing, which no
one can do continuously and hope to be a solo
player. Four hours of study work may be
nullified by a single hour of orchestra playing.
Musically it is broadening, of course, but I am
speaking from the standpoint of the student
who hopes to become a solo artist. An opera
orchestra is especially bad in this way. In the
symphonic ensemble more care is used; but in
the opera orchestra they employ the right arm
for tremolo! There is a good deal of camouflage
as regards string playing in an opera
orchestra, and much of the music—notably
Wagner's—is quite impracticable.
"And lessons are often made all too short.
A teacher in common honesty cannot really
give a pupil much in half-an-hour—it is not
a real lesson. There is a good deal to be said
for class teaching as it is practiced at the
European conservatories, especially as regards
interpretation. In my student days I learned
much from listening to others play the concertos
they had prepared, and from noting
the teacher's corrections. And this even in a
purely technical way: I can recall Kubelik
playing Paganini as a wonderful display of
the technical points of violin playing.
A GREAT DEFECT
"Most pupils seem to lack an absolute sense
of rhythm—a great defect. Yet where latent
it may be developed. Here Kreutzer is invaluable,
since he presents every form of rhythmic
problem, scales in various rhythms and bowings.
Kreutzer's 'Exercise No. 2,' for example,
may be studied with any number of
bowings. To produce a broad tone the bow
must move slowly, and in rapid passages should
never seem to introduce technical exercises in
a concert number. The student should
memorize Kreutzer and Fiorillo. Flesch's
Urstudien offer the artist or professional
musician who has time for little practice excellent
material; but are not meant for the pupil,
unless he be so far advanced that he may be
trusted to use them alone.
TONE: PRACTICE TIME
"Broad playing gives the singing tone—the
true violin tone—a long bow drawn its full
length. Like every general rule though, this
one must be modified by the judgment of the
individual player. Violin playing is an art
of many mysteries. Some pupils grasp a point
at once; others have to have it explained seven
or eight different ways before grasping it.
The serious student should practice not less
than four hours, preferably in twenty minute
intervals. After some twenty minutes the
brain is apt to tire. And since the fingers are
controlled by the brain, it is best to relax for
a short time before going on. Mental and
physical control must always go hand in hand.
Four hours of intelligent, consistent practice
work are far better than eight or ten of
fatigued effort.
A NATIONAL CONSERVATORY
"Some five years ago too many teachers gave
their pupils the Mendelssohn and Paganini
concertos to play before they knew their
Kreutzer. But there has been a change for the
better during recent years. Kneisel was one
of the first to produce pupils here who played
legitimately, according to standard violinistic
ideals. One reason why Auer has had such
brilliant pupils is that poor students were received
at the Petrograd Conservatory free of
charge. All they had to supply was talent;
and I look forward to the time when we will
have a National conservatory in this country,
supported by the Government. Then the poor,
but musically gifted, pupil will have the same
opportunities that his brother, who is well-to-do,
now has.
SOME PERSONAL VIEWS AND REFLECTIONS
"You ask me to tell you something of my
own musical preferences. Well, take the concertos.
I have reached a point where the
Mendelssohn, Mozart, Beethoven, Bach and
Brahms concertos seen to sum up what is truly
worth while. The others begin to bore me;
even Bruch! Paganini, Wieniawski, etc., are
mainly mediums of display. Most of the great
violinists, Ysaye, Thibaud, etc., during recent
years are reverting to the violin sonatas.
Ysaye, for instance, has recently been playing
the Lazzari sonata, a very powerful and beautiful
work.
"My experiences as a 'concertmaster'? I
have played with Weingartner; Saint-Saëns
(whose amiability to me, when he first visited
this country, I recall with pleasure); Gustav
Mahler, Tschaikovsky, Safonoff, Seidel,
Bauer, and Walter Damrosch, whose friend
and associate I have been for the last twenty-two
years. He is a wonderful man, many-sided
and versatile; a notably fine pianist; and
playing chamber music with him during successive
summers is numbered among my pleasantest
recollections.
"In speaking of concertos some time ago, I
forgot to mention one work well worth studying.
This is the Russian Mlynarski's concerto
in D, which I played with the Russian Symphony
Orchestra some eight years ago for the
first time in this country, as well as a fine
'Romance and Caprice' by Rubinstein.
"Is the music a concertmaster is called upon
to play always violinistic? Far from it.
Symphonic music—in as much as the concertmaster
is concerned, is usually not idiomatic
violin music. Richard Strauss's violin concerto
can really be played by the violinist. The
obbligatos in his symphonies are a very different
matter; they go beyond accepted technical
boundaries. With Stravinsky it is the same.
The violin obbligato in Rimsky-Korsakov's
Schéhérazade, though, is real violin music. Debussy
and Ravel are most subtle; they call for
a particularly good ear, since the harmonic
balance of their music is very delicate. The
concertmaster has to develop his own interpretations,
subject, of course, to the conductor's
ideas.
VIOLIN MASTERY
"Violin Mastery? It means to me complete
control of the fingerboard, a being at home in
every position, absolute sureness of fingering,
absolute equality of tone under all circumstances.
I remember Ysaye playing Tschaikovsky's
Sérénade Mélancolique, and using a
fingering for certain passages which I liked
very much. I asked him to give it to me in
detail, but he merely laughed and said: 'I'd
like to, but I cannot, because I really do not
remember which fingers I used!' That is
mastery—a control so complete that fingering
was unconscious, and the interpretation of the
thought was all that was in the artist's mind!
Sevčik's 'complete technical mastery' is after
all not perfect, since it represents mechanical
and not mental control."
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