The astounding impression made upon me on hearing Anton Rubinstein for the first time is difficult of description. When he rose after completing the first part of the programme, I fully expected him to leave the platform with the Erard grand tucked under his arm, like any violinist. His own (unwritten) arrangement of the Overture to Egmont and the Sonata Appassionata were performances the like of which I have never heard since. His Bach gave me less pleasure, for he adhered to an obstinate conviction that the grand old master's works should be played without nuance or expression of any kind, and I failed to agree either with the dictum or its results. But the Chopin sonata, with his pianissimo conception of the mystical Finale, produced an extraordinarily eerie effect. << less