as
acquired an immense reputation in Europe. In Leipzig, at a Gewandhaus
concert in 1891, he made a phenomenal success, and in 1898 at Brussels
he received five enthusiastic recalls from a cold and critical audience,
for his magnificent performance of the Brahms concerto.

M. Thomson's command of all the technical resources of the violin is so
great that he can play the most terrific passages without sacrificing
his tone or clearness of phrasing, and his octave playing almost equals
that of Paganini himself. Yet he is lacking in personal magnetism, and
is a player for the musically cultivated rather than for the multitude,
though his technique fills the listener with wonder. He visited the
United States in 1896, and was, like Marsick, compared with Ysaye, who
at that time swept everything before him and carried the country by
storm.

In 1897 Cesar Thomson left Liege, owing, it is said, to disagreements at
the Conservatoire, and made his home at Brussels.

The greatest of Belgian violinists of to-day is Eugene Ysaye, who
possesses that magnetism which charms alike the musician and the
amateur, because of his perfect musical expression. He possesses the
inexplicable and inexpressible something which takes cold judgment off
its feet and leads criticism captive.

Ysaye was born at Liege in 1858, and, after studying at the
conservatories of his native town under his father and at Brussels,
entered that of Paris, where he completed the course in 1881, and
immediately afterward started on a series of concert tours. Ysaye's
eminence as a violinist has been gained by hard work. He did not burst
meteor-like upon the world, but he earned his position in the violin
firmament by ten years of concert touring, during which time he passed
successively through the stages of extreme sentimentality until he
reached the "sea" of real sentiment.

It was in 1873 that Ysaye, after preparation given chiefly by his
father, made his way to Brussels and sought out Wieniawski, then
professor at the Conservatoire. Wieniawski was teaching, when a note was
brought to him marked "private and important." The servant was told to
show the bearer in, and Ysaye, then about fifteen years of age, timidly
entered the room carrying his violin. After a little preliminary
conversation which allowed the youth to tell his history, Wieniawski
asked him what he would play, and in reply he placed on the piano desk a
concerto of Vieuxtemps. The result of his per