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[This excerpt appeared in the book
Conversations with Cardus, London, Gollancz, 1976,
page 125. The author is Neville Cardus (1889-1975).
This web version is dated 19 December 2008.]
p.126
Pachmann was his own publicity agent. He was an eccentric.
He used to play heaven knows how many encores at the end
of a recital. There is a very good story about Pachmann which
indirectly describes the sort of player he was. Another pianist
went round to see him after he had given a recital, and there
was Pachmann, in the artists' room, kissing his own fingers—making
a tribute of love to his fingers. He had an extraordinary
felicity of touch. He could play the nocturnes and the waltzes
of Chopin, but he could not always do full justice to the bigger-scale
works. When he played the ballades of Chopin, something
went wrong: it was like too many lovely roses overwhelming
the trellis, and the trellis fell down.