e of a very different
tenor, and when, a week or two later, Wieniawski played the same
concerto in Boston, John S. Dwight praised the performance highly, and
took occasion to specially record his disagreement with the eminent
critic in New York.

While not technically the equal of one or two of his contemporaries,
Wieniawski played with so much fire, and knew so well how to reach the
heart of his audience by methods perfectly legitimate, that he must be
ranked among the greatest violinists.

Don Pablo Martin Meliton de Sarasate is a name known throughout Europe
and America, if not throughout the civilised world. Sarasate was born in
Spain, in Pampeluna, the chief city of Navarre. He was a youthful
prodigy, and played before the court of Madrid at the age of ten, when
Queen Isabella was so delighted with him that she presented him with a
fine Stradivarius violin.

A couple of years later he was sent to Paris, where he entered the
Conservatoire, and was admitted into Alard's class, while M.
Lassabathie, who was then administrator of the institution, took him
into his house and boarded him. This arrangement continued until the
death, about ten years later, of M. Lassabathie.

In the course of a year after entering the Conservatoire, Sarasate won
the first prize for violin playing. From the first he manifested
remarkable facility in mechanical execution, and his playing was
distinguished for elegance and delicacy, though nothing indicated that
his talent would become extraordinary.

For ten years after gaining the prize Sarasate remained a salon
violinist, of amiable disposition, a ladies' virtuoso, with a somewhat
mincing style, who played only variations on opera motives, and who was
an entire stranger to classical music.

Then came a complete change; the character of his playing becoming
serious, a large and noble style replaced the mincing manner which he
had previously affected, and, instead of the showy trifles which had
filled his repertoire, he took to the works of the great masters. By
hard work he developed his technical ability, so that he reached the
limit beyond which few, if any, violinists succeed in passing. And all
this he accomplished without losing anything of the elegance of his
phrasing or of the infinite charm of his tone.

Although Sarasate made Paris his home, he began to travel as early as
1859, and in 1872, when he played in Paris, he was welcomed as a new
star. When his prestige was well