Chapter 1: A musician and his pupil.

Austere - srogi
A piece - utwr
Glimpsed - dostrzegali (tutaj)
To play a great deal - to play a lot
Initially - at first
To make time for someone - to find time for someone
To bow out of the public eye - wycofywa si ze wiata reflektorw / sawy
To nudge one's way into something - to push your way through something in order to get
where you want to go
Cross - angry
Mellowness - mikko / agodno
Leeway - pole manewru
1. After reading the first paragraph, how would you describe Alfred Brendel?
2. Why doesn't Brendel accept students?
3. What do you think is Brendel's opinion of his student - Kit Armstrong?
4. What does "the teacher" mean when he says "You don't employ a mountain a guide to teach
a child how to walk"
5. Name at least four things that Kit Armstrong does.
6. Explain what Brendel means by saying "I don't want to raise any expectations"
7. What is the last paragraph about?

1. It was a disciplined, never-ending cycle of study, travel and performance.

2. You don't employ a mountain a guide to teach a child how to walk.
3. It is very rare to find any musician with this kind of overview and the necessary
subtlety.
4. But more than this is his ability to listen to his own playing, his sensitivity to sound
and his ability to listen to me when I try to explain something.
5. And when I tell him one thing in a piece, he will do it everywhere in the piece where
it comes in later. Brendel catches himself and looks at me severely "Now I don't want
to raise any expectations"
6. Although I do not have the physical power to play now, in my head, there are always
things going on, all sorts of pieces that I've never played. I don't play now but it's a
very nice new career.