"I took up the study of the violin at the age of seven, and when I was
nine I went to Charles Martin Loeffler and really began to work
seriously. Loeffler was a very strict teacher and very exacting, but he
achieved results, for he had a most original way of making his points
clear to the student. He started off with the Sevčik studies, laying
great stress on the proper finger articulation. And he taught me
absolute smoothness in change of position when crossing the strings. For
instance, in the second book of Sevčik's 'Technical Exercises,' in the
third exercise, the bow crosses from G to A, and from D to E, leaving a
string between in each crossing. Well, I simply could not manage to get
to the second string to be played without the string in between
sounding! Loeffler showed me what every good fiddler _must_ learn to do:
to leap from the end of the down-bow to the up-bow and _vice versa_ and
then hesitate the fraction of a moment, thus securing a smooth,
clean-cut tone, without any vibration of the intermediate string.
Loeffler never gave a pupil any rest until he came up to his
requirements. I know when I played the seventh and eighth Kreutzer
studies for him--they are trill studies--he said: 'You trill like an
electric bell, but not fast enough!' And he kept at me to speed up my
tempo without loss of clearness or tone-volume, until I could do justice
to a rapid trill. It is a great quality in a teacher to be literally
able to _enforce_ the pupil's progress in certain directions; for though
the latter may not appreciate it at the time, later on he is sure to do
so. I remember once when he was trying to explain the perfect
_crescendo_ to me, fire-engine bells began to ring in the distance, the
sound gradually drawing nearer the house in Charles Street where I was
taking my lesson. 'There you have it!' Loeffler cried: 'There's your
ideal _crescendo_! Play it like that and I will be satisfied!' I
remained with Loeffler a year and a half, and when he went to Paris
began to study with Felix Winternitz.
"Felix Winternitz was a teacher who allowed his pupils to develop
individuality. 'I care nothing for theories,' he used to say, 'so long
as I can see something original in your work!' He attached little
importance to the theory of technic, but a great deal to technical
development along individual lines. And he always encouraged me to
express myself freely, within my limitations, stressing the musical side
of my work. With him I played through the concertos which, after a time,
I used for technical material, since every phase of technic and bowing
is covered in these great works. I was only fifteen when I left
Winternitz and still played by instinct rather than intellectually. I
still used my bow arm somewhat stiffly, and did not think much about
phrasing. I instinctively phrased whatever the music itself made clear
to me, and what I did not understand I merely played.