"Studying with Professor Auer was a revelation. I had private lessons
from him, and at the same time attended the classes at the Petrograd
Conservatory. I should say that his great specialty, if one can use the
word specialty in the case of so universal a master of teaching as the
Professor, was bowing. In all violin playing the left hand, the finger
hand, might be compared to a perfectly adjusted technical machine, one
that needs to be kept well oiled to function properly. The right hand,
the bow hand, is the direct opposite--it is the painter hand, the artist
hand, its phrasing outlines the pictures of music; its _nuances_ fill
them with beauty of color. And while the Professor insisted as a matter
of course on the absolute development of finger mechanics, he was an
inspiration as regards the right manipulation of the bow, and its use as
a medium of interpretation. And he made his pupils think. Often, when I
played a passage in a concerto or sonata and it lacked clearness, he
would ask me: 'Why is this passage not clear?' Sometimes I knew and
sometimes I did not. But not until he was satisfied that I could not
myself answer the question, would he show me how to answer it. He could
make every least detail clear, illustrating it on his own violin; but if
the pupil could 'work out his own salvation' he always encouraged him to
do so.
[Illustration: TOSCHA SEIDEL, with hand-written note]
"Most teachers make bowing a very complicated affair, adding to its
difficulties. But Professor Auer develops a _natural_ bowing, with an
absolutely free wrist, in all his pupils; for he teaches each student
along the line of his individual aptitudes. Hence the length of the
fingers and the size of the hand make no difference, because in the case
of each pupil they are treated as separate problems, capable of an
individual solution. I have known of pupils who came to him with an
absolutely stiff wrist; and yet he taught them to overcome it.