Violin Mastery - Mischa Elman - Part 9
A REMINISCENCE OF COLONNE
“Conductors with whom I have played? There are many: Hans Richter, who was a master of the baton; Nikisch, one of the greatest in conducting the orchestral accompaniment to a violin solo number; Colonne of Paris, and many others. I had an amusing experience with Colonne once. He brought his orchestra to Russia while I was with Auer, and was giving a concert at Pavlovsk, a summer resort near Petrograd. Colonne had a perfect horror of ‘infant prodigies,’ and Auer had arranged for me to play with his orchestra without telling him my age—I was eleven at the time. When Colonne saw me, violin in hand, ready to step on the stage, he drew himself up and said with emphasis: ‘I play with a prodigy! Never!’ Nothing could move him, and I had to play to a piano accompaniment. After he had heard me play, though, he came over to me and said: ‘The best apology I can make for what I said is to ask you to do me the honor of playing with the Orchestre Colonne in Paris.’ He was as good as his word. Four months later I went to Paris and played the Mendelssohn concerto for him with great success.”
Violin Mastery
Talks with Master Violinists and Teachers
by Frederick H. Martens
Published 1919
