That a child prodigy should have been able twice last week to fill St.
James's Hall to overflowing, may not perhaps speak at the first glance
very highly for the artistic instincts of the British Public, who, as
a thoughtful musical critic remarks in the pages of a contemporary,
are sometimes "more impressed by a little boy in an Eton jacket
than by the finest music that might be played in less exciting
circumstances;" still it cannot be denied that the couple of recitals
referred to, given by Master JOSEF HOFMANN, were altogether two
exceptionally brilliant performances. Commenting, however, on the
little fellow's efforts to give a good rendering of a slow movement,
the critic already alluded to asks how, in a long-drawn melody which
is a matter of passion and of feeling, "a child of eleven can have
much feeling or any passion?" Surely this is hypercriticism. Ask any
boy of eleven who has had a whipping, or has come off second best in a
fight with his little sister, whether he hasn't much feeling;--and as
for passion! Well: but, perhaps this is not exactly what the critic
means. Nevertheless, he proceeds rather pertinently to ask whether
this singularly gifted young artist will be suffered, "when he has
served the immediate purposes of those who have control over him,
to continue his studies in a rational manner and far from the
fierce light and the hot-house temperature pertaining to the concert
platform?" As Master JOSEF HOFMANN is already booked for an American
tour, there does not seem any prospect of this highly desirable
consummation, at least in the near future. Judging, therefore, from
little Master JOSEF'S present arrangements, one would be disposed to
apostrophise him sympathetically in the language of Dr. WATTS, and
say:--
"Night after night, you'll prove a sight
To draw the cute Yankee,
Because your little hands were made
To stretch from C to C!"
Still, as he is an unquestionable genius who has a future before
him, it is to be hoped that he won't be "worked out" early at high
pressure, and stimulated by a success that will only blunt his powers
by depriving him of that desire for true progress in his art by which
alone they can be legitimately developed. "Not too much gaslight, some
practice, and plenty of battledore and shuttlecock," is the proper
_recipe_ for little Master JOSEF. With this he can't go wrong, and
will, without doubt, if he stick to it, command the musical world of
the future as surely as he has astonished that of to-day.
* * * * *
"NO MORE SEA-SICKNESS!" NO MORE "BAD QUARTERS-OF-AN-HOUR" IN CROSSING
THE CHANNEL! Try Mons. M. L. MAYER'S Remedy, to be provided on October
24 up to the middle of November, and probably longer, if all goes
well, at the Remedy Theatre--no--at the Royalty Theatre, where he
intends giving a season of French plays, and brings M. COQUELIN, Mmes.
CHAUMONT and JANE MAY,--not all at once but one at a time,--over to
afford amusement to those Londoners who can't afford amusement
in Paris, or who object to the sea-passage, or who cannot spare
sufficient time for the trip. M. COQUELIN has with him a fair-sized
bag of tricks which includes, among other things, _Don Caesar de
Bazan_, and he means to devote three-fourths of one evening's
entertainment to monologues, among which, Mr. BEERBOHM TREE will be
delighted to hear, is announced _Gringoire_. M. MAYER, will of course,
see that his stars are well supported, and the public, delighted to
save the sea-voyage, will support M. MAYER.
* * * * *