128.—IN BÜLOW'S CLASS-ROOM.
Von Bülow, the eccentric pianist and conductor, was even more severe with his pupils than Liszt. Tears were not infrequent things in Liszt's class-room, and yet his gallantry and winning personality did much to dull the sharpness of his cutting criticism.
Not so with Bülow. His classes were large, and he called out whom he chose to play what they had prepared. The rest sat trembling in expectation of their turn. An awkward English girl once went to the piano and, because of her great fright, managed to play her piece with so large an assortment of blunders that the irate Doctor cried out: "Ach, Gott! you play the easy passages with a 'difficulty that is simply enormous!" This saying might well be kept as a stock quotation with every teacher, so frequently is it applicable.