est," "Summer Idyll," "The Shepherdess' Song," "Forest
Spirits"), was published in 1891, the supplement in 1893.

Meanwhile his prestige grew steadily. Each new work that he put forth
met with a remarkable measure of success, both among the general
public and at the hands of many not over-complacent critical
appraisers. On January 10, 1890, his "Lancelot and Elaine" was played
at a Boston Symphony concert under Mr. Nikisch. In September, 1891,
his orchestral suite in A-minor (op. 42) was performed for the first
time at the Worcester Festival, and a month later it was played in
Boston at a Symphony concert under Mr. Nikisch. In November of the
same year the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, under Bernhard Listemann,
performed for the first time, at the Tremont Theatre, his "Roland"
pieces, "The Saracens" and "The Lovely Alda." On the following
day--November 6, 1891--he gave his first piano recital, playing, in
addition to pieces by Bach, Schubert, Schumann, Templeton Strong, P.
Geisler, Alabieff, and Liszt, his own "Witches' Dance," "Shadow Dance"
(op. 39), "The Eagle," the Etude in F-sharp (op. 36), the Prelude from
the first suite, and the fourth of the "Idyls" after Goethe. He
followed this with a second recital in January, 1892, at which he
played, among other things, the "Winter," "Moonshine," and "The
Brook," from the "Four Little Poems" (op. 32). Discussing the first of
these recitals, Mr. Philip Hale (in the _Boston Post_) wrote these
words, which have a larger application than their reference to
MacDowell: "No doubt, as a composer, he has studied and mastered form
and knows its value; but he prefers suggestions and hints and dream
pictures and sleep-chasings to all attempts to be original in an
approved and conventional fashion.... They [his compositions] are
interesting, and more than that: they are extremely characteristic in
harmonic colouring. Their size has nothing to do with their merits. A
few lines by Gautier stuffed with prismatic words and yet as vague as
mist-wreaths may in artistic worth surpass whole cantos of more famous
poets; and Mr. MacDowell has Gautier's sense of colour and knowledge
of the power of suggestion." His performance "was worthy of the
warmest praise ... seeing gorgeous or delicate colours and hearing the
voices of orchestral instruments, it is no wonder that Mr. MacDowell
is a pianist of rare fascination." On January 28, 1893, the "Hamlet
and Ophelia" was played, for the first time in