Spohr came to Prague in the autumn and, with his wife, gave a very well-attended concert. There is not, and never has been, an artist who is as sincere and conscientious in his art as Spohr. He is on equally as high a plane as composer and as virtuoso. His personal leaning towards the elegiac may be the reason why his compositions bear so unmistakably the stamp of their crea­tor. At the concert he revealed, along with an extremely clean intonation, a tone that was at once virilely strong and yet soft; at the same time, he showed that he could toss off passages of thirds, sixths, octaves, and tenths in rapid tempo and with the greatest precision, and all the while with a noble and unforced bowing-in short, he showed that he was truly the master of his instrument. On such grounds, it is no wonder that the world considered him the foremost virtuoso and his well-organized and tasteful concert-pieces the best and purest compositions. His wife made a very agreeable appearance as virtuoso on the pedal­ harp. For the most part, she played compositions of her hus­band; she performed everything with the cleanest precision, although without that poetic rapture which cannot be learned but is a natural gift. << less