Here he divided his time between his private teaching and his composition.

He was ambitious also to secure some profitable concert engagements as a pianist.

He had made occasional appearances at orchestral concerts in Wiesbaden, Frankfort, Darmstadt, but these had yielded him no return save an increase of reputation.
At Raff's instigation he visited Liszt at Weimar in the spring of 1882, armed with his first piano concerto (op.

15).

This work he had just composed under amusing circumstances.