this work could be played to them, they could not fail to be impressed
with its beauties. I am now studying a new concerto by Haddon Wood,
which you see in manuscript there on the piano; it is one I find very
beautiful."

A subsequent conversation with the artist elicited the following:

"I might say that I began my music when about four years old, by playing
the Russian National Hymn, on a toy piano containing eight keys, which
had been given me. My older sister, who was studying the piano, noticed
this, showed me a few things about the notes, and I constantly picked
out little tunes and pieces on the real piano. Finally one day my
sister's teacher, Rudolph Heim, came to the house, mainly on my account.
This was in Odessa, in the south of Russia, where I was born and where I
spent my early years. On this occasion, he wanted to look at me and see
what I could do. Unluckily a sudden fit of shyness overcame me and I
began to cry; the exhibition could not take place, as nothing could be
made out of me that day. You see I was headstrong even at that early
age," said the young pianist, with one of her charming smiles.

"Soon after this incident, I was taken to the Professor's studio. He
examined me, considered I had talent, and thought it should be
cultivated. So he took me in hand. I was then five, and my real musical
education began at that time.

"From the very first I adopted a position of hand which seemed to me
most convenient and comfortable, and no amount of contrary instruction
and advice has ever been able to make me change it. I play scales and
passages with low hand and flat fingers because that position seems the
most favorable for my hand. When practising, I play everything very