"Let us recognize the great success won last Sunday at the Conservatoire by the violinist White, in the concerto by Mendelssohn. He is an artist now complete, this young rival of the Sivoris and of Vieuxtemps. He is not only a virtuoso, but also a composer of note, having published several very remarkable pieces for the violin. We shall notice his six brilliant 'Studies for the Conservatoire.' He has composed one concerto with large orchestral accompaniment, a quatuor for strings, 'Songs without Words,' several fantasies, and several pieces for one and two violins."
His concerto brought forth the following lines in the "France Musicale" of the 3d of March, 1867:—
"Mr. Joseph White is one of the most distinguished violinists of the French school. While yet very young, he jumped with one bound to the first rank; and since then he has each day strengthened his reputation through new and incontestable successes. He has always distinguished himself as well by the manner, grand and magisterial, with which he renders the masters' works, as by his style, together elegant and sober, when he interprets music of our time. In order to be more than a virtuoso of note, there was only one thing wanting in him; and that was to cause himself to be appreciated as a composer.
"If virtuosity is acquired through obstinate work, guided by good studies, and helped by that indispensable element, natural aptitude, genius is a gift from Heaven, which neither treatise on harmony, nor the works on counterpoint, nor a given song, shall ever procure to those who have no sacred fire.
"Last Tuesday Mr. White gave a concert in the Herz Hall; and here he has had the good fortune to receive, from the delighted audience that surrounded him, a double wreath, given together to the violinist and to the composer. The concerto he played, and whose author he is, is one of the best modern conceptions we ever heard of the kind.
"The style of a concerto must be, at the same time, serious in thoughts and in their developments, graceful and brilliant, in order to bring forth the talent of execution of the virtuoso. Here is a double reef to avoid, and here many artists have been wrecked. Vieuxtemps and Leonard are the modern masters who have been the most successful in this difficult style; but how many have been less happy!
"Mr. White's concerto is very temperate, of unnecessary length. The fabric of it is very well cared for; the mother-thoughts are well separated from the very commencement; the harmonies are unmistakably elegant and fine; and the orchestration is written with a firm and sure hand, without fumblings or failings. The three episodes are naturally united by the tuttis; the third movement, 'rondo à la turca,' is charming in cut and manner, its rhythms original and frank, and has won all approbations, and brought forth several times unanimous bravos from the whole assembly. This composition of a high value has been, in one word, the object of a true ovation for Mr. White, who was both author and composer."
The "Art Musicale" speaks thus of this concerto:—
"From the first measures one feels himself in presence of a nature strong and individual, and not in the presence of a proletaire of the large tribe of virtuoso composers.
"Not a single note in the composition has been given to virtuosité, though the difficulties of execution be enormous. 'With every true artist there is an eternally vibrating chord, which goes to the heart,' says Boileau; and that is why Mr. White asks only that his own emotion shall excite emotion, and, to the astonishment of charlatanry, renounces at once those means of success employed by coarse musicians."