I would not play for those who did not know.
As for the threat of whippings, that must be relegated to the realm of legends with the one that Garcia punished his daughters to make them learn to sing.

Madame Viardot expressly told me that neither she nor her sister was abused by their father and that they learned music without realizing it, just as they learned to talk.
But in spite of my surprising progress my teacher did not foresee what my future was to be.

"When he is fifteen," she said, "if he can write a dance, I shall be satisfied." It was just at this time, however, that I began to write music.

I wrote waltzes and galops--the galop was fashionable at that period; it ran to rather ordinary musical motives and mine were no exception to the rule.

Liszt had to show by his _Galop Chromatique_ the distinction that genius can give to the most commonplace themes.