An Argument Over Mozart - A Loving Memory

I had the great fortune of having studied with great men, and most of these musicians were as warm and friendly as they were great teachers.
Two of my favorites were Jerome Diamond, who taught at Eastman, and who became a veritable second father to me; the other, Dr. John Hasson, out of Boston University, who had a profound influence upon me as well.
I had just begun work on the Mozart piano concerto, K. 488, with Hasson, and had gotten pretty well into the first movement, when at a certain point, Hasson disagreed with the tempo I had chosen for this movement. Being young and stupid, I disagreed with his disagreement, and a firm but quite gentle argument broke out concerning the tempo.
After about a week of sparring back and forth about this issue, Hasson suggested that I write to Alfred Einstein (not related to Albert), who was teaching at Smith College at the time.
Einstein was one of the leading authorities on Mozart and the Classical period, and so I thought that this was a good idea.
And so I wrote the great man.
Within just a few days, I received an answer from Einstein, which has governed my way of dealing with the tempi of Mozart from that time to the present.
I remember the exact words of his short but, for me, very pregnant epistle: "My Dear LH (my initials), I consider that all of the allegro markings attached to Mozart be thought of by way of 'cantabile.' Yours Very Truly, Alfred Einstein."
Now the word 'cantabile' pertains to the quality of singing, which meant to me that enough space be given between the notes for the singing nature of Mozart's melodies never to be undermined.
And so from that letter to this very day, I always make an assiduous study of how, in a melody written by Mozart, which is involved with the word 'allegro' (fast) to make sure that speed in and of itself does not affect the elemental nature of the melody's incarnation.
Hasson's suggestion was without question the correct thing to enact; certainly for me.