Madame Dulcken's playing, I remember, struck me as extraordinarily brilliant and forcible. So did Cipriani Potter's...Thalberg astonished and discouraged me; the inconceivable smoothness and featness of his execution, combined with the surprising intricacy of the passages that seemed to glide off his fingers, carried conviction to my soul that it was utterly useless for me to go on trying to learn to play, as I could certainly never hope to attain anything like Thalbergian facility. A scarcely less depressing effect was produced upon me by the wonders wrought by Dreyschock's phenomenal left hand. They were in reality only clever tricks, perfected with infinite pains; but they seemed much more to me at that time, Sloper's sparkling warmth and Holmes's classical coldness created impressions, when I first heard those eminent musicians play in public, which are still fresh in my memory.