"Joachim was, perhaps, the most celebrated teacher of his time. Yet it
is one of the greatest ironies of fate that when he died there was not
one of his pupils who was considered by the German authorities 'great'
enough to take the place the Master had held. Henri Marteau, who was
not his pupil, and did not even exemplify his style in playing, was
chosen to succeed him! Henri Petri, a Vieuxtemps pupil who went to
Joachim, played just as well when he came to him as when he left him.
The same might be said of Willy Burmester, Hess, Kes and Halir, the
latter one of those Bohemian artists who had a tremendous 'Kubelik-like'
execution. Teaching is and always will be a special gift. There are many
minor artists who are wonderful 'teachers,' and _vice versa_!
"Yet if Joachim may be criticized as regards the way of imparting the
secrets of technical phases in his violin teaching, as a teacher of
interpretation he was incomparable! As an interpreter of Beethoven and
of Bach in particular, there has never been any one to equal Joachim.
Yet he never played the same Bach composition twice in the same way. We
were four in our class, and Hubay and I used to bring our copies of the
sonatas with us, to make marginal notes while Joachim played to us, and
these instantaneous musical 'snapshots' remain very interesting. But no
matter how Joachim played Bach, it was always with a big tone, broad
chords of an organ-like effect. There is no greater discrepancy than the
edition of the Bach sonatas published (since his death) by Moser, and
which is supposed to embody Joachim's interpretation. Sweeping chords,
which Joachim always played with the utmost breadth, are 'arpeggiated'
in Moser's edition! Why, if any of his pupils had ever attempted to
play, for instance, the end of the _Bourée_ in the B minor _Partita_ of
Bach _à la Moser_, Joachim would have broken his bow over their heads!