These lines to tell you in haste that I have determined to visit
Paris as soon as possible. To–morrow to Warsaw, where I am to give
two concerts, and then direct to Paris....
I have just composed a fantasy on a Russian air, “The
Nightingale,”—my adieu to Moscow,—and was obliged to repeat it. It
has no great musical worth,—only effective. Perhaps you will like
it; there is a sad thought running through it. I will rewrite it
at Valestrand. My “Gaspar da Salo” is full of joy, and bears its
virtuoso like an Arab; it is really matchless since I had a bar of
seven–hundred–years’–old wood put in by Weihe; and I have
discovered a new method for measuring and placing the bar in its
relation to the building and playing of the violin.
Greet our countrymen in Paris most cordially....
In November, 1867, Ole Bull again visited the United States. He went
directly to the West, giving his first concert in Chicago. In the
Northwestern States were some 300,000 of his own countrymen, and they
received him everywhere with rejoicing. In many towns they met him with
torchlight processions and speeches of welcome, and he often left
substantial proofs of his sympathy in gifts to their churches and
libraries.
One evening in Milwaukee he played Paganini’s “Second Concerto” with so
much spirit that his audience caught the enthusiasm of the player. On
leaving the stage he whispered to his son: “I believe Paganini himself
would have been pleased to–night, had he heard me.”