VIOLIN MASTERY
"Violin Mastery? It means to me complete control of the fingerboard, a being at home in every position, absolute sureness of fingering, absolute equality of tone under all circumstances. I remember Ysaye playing Tschaikovsky's Sérénade Mélancolique, and using a fingering for certain passages which I liked very much. I asked him to give it to me in detail, but he merely laughed and said: 'I'd like to, but I cannot, because I really do not remember which fingers I used!' That is mastery—a control so complete that fingering was unconscious, and the interpretation of the thought was all that was in the artist's mind! Sevčik's 'complete technical mastery' is after all not perfect, since it represents mechanical and not mental control."