In this respect the Berlin celebration of Dr. Joachim 's jubilee was, of course, far more interesting. Then a grand concert was given, at which every member of the orchestra was a former  student of the Hochschule, every individual fiddler a pupil of the "King of Violinists”; while, to make things perfect, the hero  of the night was ultimately persuaded to take his violin and bow  from three of his fair musical children and delight his excited  auditors with a solo by Bach. I went over expressly to attend  that unique and brilliant function. The orchestra was directed  by Herr Steinbach, and as long as I live I shall never forget the magnificent quality of the tone of those violins or the superb elan that marked the performance of Weber's "Euryanthe"  overture. Every player was an artist of repute, and the total  value of the stringed instruments was computed at a quarter of a million dollars.