"Mr. White, whom America sent to us a year ago, I think, through a courageous work, developed the talent which had caused him to receive the first prize at the Conservatoire. He played with equal success the concerto by Mendelssohn, and Paganini's fantasias: which is to say, that he is ready to play every thing you may wish; for there is a place for every thing between these two extremes. He played even his own music; and played at his concert a composition for violin and orchestra, very well instrumentated, full of happy melodies, and where the principal part contained features of a character as ingenious as piquant. He possesses an extreme dexterity in the use of the bow, and makes the staccato with as much audacity as perfection. He has the tone agreeable, the style elegant, and the expression just, and not affected. Here he is, then, placed in the first rank in that glorious phalanx of violinists which Europe envies us."
After having given a splendid description of this concert (which want of space forces us not to publish here), the "Patrie" of the 30th of April, 1861, speaks thus:—
"We have seen Mr. White begin. We have been present at the concourse at the Conservatoire, where he won successively all the prizes. Then it was but a scholar who gave brilliant hopes: it is a master that we congratulate to-day in him."
Some time after, he left for Spain, where he played at Mme. the Comtesse de Montijo's (mother of the Empress of France), and before the Queen of Spain. Her Spanish Majesty presented him, the brilliant virtuoso, with a magnificent set of diamond studs, and created him chevalier of the order of Isabella the Catholic. We reproduce some lines from "La France Musicale" of the 22d of November, 1863:—
"White, the violinist, has had the honor to be received on the 12th of this month by the Queen of Spain. Her Majesty has accepted the dedication of a piece composed by this eminent artist, and has told him that she would try and find an occasion for hearing him play it; and, in fact, our violinist played at the queen's on the 22d of December."[15]
After his return to France, he played at the Tuileries before their Majesties Napoleon the Third and the Empress Eugénie. These sovereigns congratulated the artist most fully. We reproduce an extract from the "Constitutionale:"—
"In the concert given at the Palace of the Tuileries on the 1st of March, Mr. White, violinist, and very distinguished, executed a fantasie on Nabucco by Mr. Alard, in which he displayed all the qualities of a virtuoso. He knows how to make his instrument sing; and, when a difficulty presents itself, he carries it with a fascinating majesty. He is an artist who has succeeded in taking place among the best violinists of France and Italy."
This was going on in the year 1864.
This same year, Alard, White's old professor, was obliged to be absent, and leave his class in the care of others. After considering into whose care he should leave his class, Mr. Alard thought that White was more able to help him than any other,—White, his old first prize. Since that day, it was he, who, during the absence of the master, has had the directing of his class at the Conservatoire. In order to thank him for his services so well given, Alard presented White with a magnificent bow ornamented with gold and with tortoise-shells.
One reads in the "France Musicale" of the 24th of December, 1864, the following lines:—