 
MEMORIES OF A | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PAGE | |
Early Days in New England | 3 |
| Lowell Mason's Career | 7 |
| First Beethoven Symphony in America | 8 |
| Musical Conventions | 9 |
| Early Musical Training | 10 |
| Webster and Clay | 11 |
| First Public Appearance | 18 |
| Leopold de Meyer | 19 |
| "Father Heinrich" | 22 |
| An Embarrassing Experience | 25 |
Student Life Abroad | 27 |
| Meeting with Meyerbeer | 28 |
| Liszt's Feat of Memory | 31 |
| First Meeting with Liszt | 33 |
| Arrival at Leipsic | 34 |
| Moscheles, Beethoven, and Chopin | 36 |
| The Intimacy of Moscheles and Mendelssohn | 37 |
| Schumann | 38 |
| Schumann's "Symphony No. 1, B Flat" | 39 |
| Schumann's Absent-mindedness | 42 |
| Moritz Hauptmann | 44 |
| A Visit to Wagner | 48 |
| Wagner on Mendelssohn and Beethoven | 51 |
| A Wagner Autograph | 55 |
| Moscheles | 57 |
| Joseph Joachim | 62 |
| Schumann's "Concerto in A Minor" | 63 |
| Carl Mayer | 65 |
| Dreyschock | 66 |
| Prince de Rohan's Dinner | 71 |
| Chopin, Henselt, and Thalberg | 75 |
| Anton Schindler, "Ami de Beethoven" | 79 |
| Schindler and Schnyder von Wartensee | 82 |
| First London Concert | 84 |
With Liszt in Weimar | 86 |
| Accepted by Liszt | 88 |
| The Altenburg | 93 |
| How Liszt Taught | 97 |
| "Play It Like This" | 99 |
| Liszt in 1854 | 101 |
| His Fascination | 102 |
| Liszt's Indignation | 103 |
| Objects to my Eye-glasses | 106 |
| A Musical Breakfast | 108 |
| Liszt's Playing | 110 |
| Liszt and Pixis | 117 |
| Liszt Conducting | 119 |
| Liszt's Symphonic Poems—Rehearsing "Tasso" | 121 |
| Extracts from a Diary | 122 |
| Opportunities | 126 |
| Brahms in 1853 | 127 |
| Nervous before Liszt | 128 |
| Dozing while Liszt Played | 129 |
| "Lohengrin" for the First Time in Leipsic | 132 |
| In Stuttgart—Hotel Marquand | 135 |
| The Schumann "Feier" in Bonn, 1880 | 136 |
| Brahms's Pianoforte-playing | 137 |
| A Historical Error Corrected | 141 |
| More about Liszt's Wonderful Sight-reading | 142 |
| Liszt's Moments of Contrition | 144 |
| Peter Cornelius | 145 |
| Some Famous Violinists | 147 |
| Remenyi | 151 |
| Some Distinguished Opera-singers | 153 |
| Henriette Sontag | 154 |
| Johanna Wagner | 156 |
| Mme. de la Grange | 157 |
| "Der Verein der Murls" | 158 |
| The Wagner Cause in Weimar | 159 |
| Raff in Weimar | 161 |
| Dr. Adolf Bernhard Marx | 165 |
| Berlioz in Weimar | 168 |
| Entertaining Liszt's "Young Beethoven" | 171 |
| Rubinstein's Opposition to Wagner | 174 |
At Work in America | 183 |
| Touring the Country | 184 |
| "Yankee Doodle" and "Old Hundred" | 187 |
| Settling down to Teach | 191 |
| Theodore Thomas at Twenty | 195 |
| Thomas as Conductor | 197 |
| Karl Klauser, Musical Director at Miss Porter's School | 202 |
| Louis Moreau Gottschalk | 205 |
| Propaganda for Schumann's Music | 209 |
| Sigismond Thalberg | 210 |
| Pedal and Pedal Signs—Why not Dispense with the Latter? | 215 |
| Pedal Study for the Pianoforte | 219 |
| Rubinstein and the Autograph-hunter | 221 |
| Evolution in Musical Ideas—Beethoven Pianoforte Recitals | 226 |
| Rubinstein's Favorite Seat at a Pianoforte Recital | 227 |
| Bach's "Triple Concerto" and "Les AgrÉments" | 229 |
| A Significant Autograph from Rubinstein | 234 |
| Rubinstein, Paderewski, and "Yankee Doodle" | 236 |
| Meetings with Von BÜlow | 238 |
| Edvard Grieg | 241 |
| Rates of Tempo—The Present Time Compared with Fifty Years Ago | 243 |
| Electrocuting Chopin | 244 |
| Tempo Rubato | 246 |
| Unusual Pupils—Transposing—Positive and Relative Pitch | 247 |
| Appledore, Isles of Shoals | 251 |
Music in America To-day | 259 |
Appendix | 273 |
Index | 297 |
The author acknowledges the efficient collaboration of Mr. Gustav KobbÉ in preparing these Memories for publication, and also the valuable assistance of his son-in-law, Mr. Howard van Sinderen.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
| Some of the illustrations may be viewed enlarged by clicking directly on the image. (note of etext transcriber) |
| William Mason in 1899 | |
| From a photograph by Gessford & Van Brunt. | |
| FACING PAGE | |
| William Mason as a Boy | 12 |
| From a daguerreotype. | |
| William Mason at the Age of Eighteen | 20 |
| From a daguerreotype. | |
| Autograph of I. Moscheles | 32 |
| Autograph of Robert Schumann | 38 |
| Autograph of Mme. Schumann | 44 |
| Autograph of Moritz Hauptmann | 48 |
| Autograph of Richard Wagner | 56 |
| Autograph of Joseph Joachim | 64 |
| Autograph of Anton Schindler | 80 |
| Liszt in Middle Life | 88 |
| Drawn by George T. Tobin from a photograph of uncertain date. | |
| The Altenburg, Liszt's House at Weimar | 96 |
| Autograph of Vieuxtemps | 144 |
| Autograph of Ole Bull | 150 |
| Autograph of Henriette Sontag | 164 |
| Autograph of Hector Berlioz | 168 |
| Autograph of Ferdinand Laub | 180 |
| The Mason-Thomas Quartet | 196 |
| Theodore Thomas about Twenty-four Years Old | 200 |
| From a photograph by Duchochois & Klauser. | |
| Autograph of Moreau Gottschalk | 208 |
| Autograph of Sigismond Thalberg | 212 |
| Autograph of Anton Rubinstein | 232 |
| Autograph of I. J. Paderewski | 236 |
| Autograph of Hans von BÜlow | 240 |
| Autograph of Edvard Grieg | 244 |
| Interior of Studio in Steinway Building, New York | 248 |
| Autographs of the Kneisel Quartet | 262 |
| Lowell Mason | 277 |
| From a daguerreotype. | |
