Other criticisms of the same concert, however, were 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 established in Paris his friends advised him to go to Germany, but he feared that so soon after the Franco-German war he, who by long residence was practically a Frenchman, would not be welcome.  At last, however, the entreaties of his friends prevailed, and when Sarasate appeared at Leipzig he produced an immense sensation.  Then followed a series of tours in Germany, Russia, Austria, England, and Belgium, which lasted three years, and brought him much glory and pecuniary gain.