THE MUSICIAN ABOUT TOWN. 137 



was no judicious friend, who, having heard what she could do, re- 

 commended her being engaged. 



Herr Hauman, a disciple (and worthy one) in the Paganini 

 school, played in the second act. With a pardonable foppery, the 

 pupils of Rubens used to imitate the dress of their master, and fa- 

 shion of his beard. The general air and manner of M. Hauman is 

 precisely that of his great prototype ; he however possesses qualities 

 in his art which redeem the less creditable condescension of becom- 

 ing a mimic, where there is abundance of real talent to establish a 

 fame for himself. M. Hauman has an absolute command of his in- 

 strument. His manner of covering the finger-board is very like 

 Paganini ; and (like Paganini) he appears to be prepared by nature 

 for reaching great distances with but little shifting of the hand. 

 He therefore darts with admirable certainty from the lowest notes 

 of his violin to the '^ ultima thule" of its compass upwards. His 

 bowing is masterly and grand ; and his performance of double stops, 

 and staccato passages quite extraordinary. In the last movement of 

 his concerto he introduced a variation in staccato, which we believe 

 no one but Paganini could play like him : — in short, after the emi- 

 nent Italian, he is the greatest accomplisher of difficulties that we 

 have heard. 



A rival to him of the French school, a Mons. Artot, performed a 

 fantasia at the seventh concert. With too great a display of what 

 our neighbours denominate "intense feeling and expression,^' so 

 that the whole of his adagio movement was a succession of slides 

 and tremors, with scarce a firmly held note, Mons. Artot is never- 

 theless a very refined and accomplished artist. The concluding va- 

 riation to his fantasia was also one of excessive difficulty, and he ex- 

 ecuted it with exquisite neatness and certainty. 



At this and the previous concert the public first heard the new 

 singer. Mad. Dorus Gras. As this is distinctly the mechanical era 

 in music, and that it has attained to a degree of florid perfection 

 which all but completes the circle, we may hope for an early change 

 of fashion and manner ; and, indeed, it is to be confidently expected 

 when we consider how soon every novelty in Paris is " deja vieux" 

 and how prone the genteel million here are to adopt every sugges- 

 tion that is French. Mad. Dorus is perhaps the most expert, the 

 most accomplished, executer of solfeggi passages now living. Her 

 distances are taken with unerring certainty, her divisions are run 

 with the quickness and volubility (though not wuth the melting 

 quality) of the nightingale ; her chromatic passages, up as well as 



VOL. X., NO. XXVIII. 18 



