1881?) in Bayreuth. He did remember me in the kindest possible manner (could he ever
be other than kind?) but – he had greatly aged, he had grown weak and he was
surrounded and guarded by people who for only too obvious reasons formed his
entourage; as my wife, with me at the time, was not well I could not devote myself to
him, much as I should have loved to do so.
Of Liszt, the executive and creative musician, the world is no longer in complete
ignorance, though there is much, very much indeed, that the world still has to learn of
that side of the master, but the man Liszt? His breadth of learning; his unparalleled tact;
his Christ-like goodness and kindness; his lenity [sic] with imperfections; his
encouraging attitude towards his students; how can the world ever know that side of him?
I know only one work of art that can symbolize his character and disposition: it is
Thorwalden’s ‘Christ’ in Copenhagen who, with lovingly inviting, outstretched arms
seems to say: “Come unto me, ye who are heavy laden”.’
STRADAL
August Stradal was born in Teplitz, Bohemia, on 17 May 1860 and died in Schönlinde on
13 March 1930. He studied composition with Bruckner, and piano with Leschetizsky and
Anton Door (a pupil of Czerny) before coming to Liszt.
He played Liszt’s Sonata for the composer as a teenager in the 1870s and later entered
Liszt’s masterclass in Weimar in September 1884. He toured widely and taught piano in
Vienna and, after 1919, in Schönlinde. He composed vocal and piano pieces, made piano
arrangements of orchestral works by Liszt, Beethoven and Bruckner, and made piano
transcriptions of organ compositions by Frescobaldi and Buxtehude. His transcriptions
were played in his day by Cortot, Friedman, Reisenauer and Sauer.
Stradal was one of Liszt’s most faithful disciples and played much of Liszt’s piano music
in recitals across Germany. Stradal wrote a book ‘Errinerungen an Franz Liszt’ (1929), a
memoir about his days with Liszt. He also co-edited with Eugen d’Albert ‘The Collected
Works of Franz Liszt’. Stradal did not make any discs or rolls.
STRINGS
The sound of a piano is made by hammers hitting the strings. Piano strings are also
called piano wire. There are treble strings and bass strings. The treble strings produce
the highest notes and are found at the right hand end of the piano. They are made of steel,
the highest (thinnest) being guage 13 (0.775 mm) and the lowest (thickest) being around
guage 22 (1.224 mm). They are together in threes called a trichord.
The bass strings produce the lowest notes. These are made of a steel core with copper
wound onto it. When the strings are new they are very shiny like polished brass but they
soon tarnish and become dull. When bass strings are very old the copper winding may
become clogged with dirt and the tone may become dead.