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The Uncovered Genius

Gabrilowitsch was a musician all the way through. It might interest you to know that when Gabrilowitsch posed for the bust I did of him, he looked no more like a musician than a colonel in the Army, or a lawyer. After half an hour of work, I said, I want to see you as a musician. I want to see music in your eyes. I want to see the very soul of music in you because that is what you are. I do not want to do a bust of you just as an ordinary human being. What shall I do? he asked. Go to the piano and play, I said. I cannot play for an audience of one. I could play for an audience of a thousand, but not for one, he replied. Yes, you can, I replied, you just play and forget me and I will take care of my part. He played for an hour or two at a time for sixteen hours. I was then able to interpret him as a musician. I think that is one of the best things I have ever done it portrays a man actually inspired by thinking music.

(The Message of The Divine Iliad, Vol. I, p. 217