Toscha Seidel, though one of the more recent of the young Russian
violinists who represent the fruition of Professor Auer's formative
gifts, has, to quote H.F. Peyser, "the transcendental technic observed
in the greatest pupils of his master, a command of mechanism which makes
the rough places so plain that the traces of their roughness are hidden
to the unpracticed eye." He commenced to study the violin seriously at
the age of seven in Odessa, his natal town, with Max Fiedemann, an Auer
pupil. A year and a half later Alexander Fiedemann heard him play a De
Bériot concerto in public, and induced him to study at the Stern
Conservatory in Berlin, with Brodsky, a pupil of Joachim, with whom he
remained for two years.
It was in Berlin that the young violinist reached the turning point of
his career. "I was a boy of twelve," he said, "when I heard Jascha
Heifetz play for the first time. He played the Tschaikovsky concerto,
and he played it wonderfully. His bowing, his fingering, his whole style
and manner of playing so greatly impressed me that I felt I _must_ have
his teacher, that I would never be content unless I studied with
Professor Auer! In 1912 I at length had an opportunity to play for the
Professor in his home at Loschivitz, in Dresden, and to my great joy he
at once accepted me as a pupil.