Never bore your listeners

Conductor and pianist Seymour Lipkin (born 1928) recalled piano lessons with his teacher, Bohemian-born pianist Rudolf Serkin:

He said so many memorable things to me that I continue to pass on to my students.  A few examples: “The worst crime you can commit as an artist is to bore your listeners”; for another, “People who come to hear you are entitled to hear all the rights notes, don’t you think?”; also,”You can’t play Mozart beautifully unless you can play Tchaikovsky well … and vice versa.” That last one made no sense to me at all at the time; now I understand precisely what he meant by it.

Cited in:  Lehmann, Stephen (2003) Rudolf Serkin: A Life.  New York: Oxford University Press, p. 209.

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