It is just possible that Brahms himself could play them [Beethoven's sonatas] as they ought to be played, if he would take the trouble to practise them. This, however, he does not do — or did not when I was privileged to meet and hear him — and there are but few pianists living who combine the physical strength, manual skill, and intellectual quickness that may enable a performer hors ligne to overcome the formidable difficulties with which the works above alluded to teem. To sum up Brahms 'pianofort' playing in a few words, it belongs neither to the old nor to the new school; it is not coldly classical, nor ardently emotional; it lacks some of the qualities that constitute executant greatness of the first order; but it is original, and instinct with a genius that is reproductive as well as creative.