We hope it will not be forgotten that Burke is to give his concert Tuesday evening. His first had not a fair chance, as he came to near Ole Bull, and this one must compete with the varied entertainments provided for the holidays. But there are enough of us to attend to all that can be offered truly good, if only attention be alive to the offer.
We subjoin a notice of Burke written by a friend who is an excellent judge of music both as respects the spirits and the execution. For ourselves, intending to hear him in full on Tuesday evening, we have only to say for the present—1st. The pleasure formerly received in this country from his premature genius should inspire an interest in his behalf like that of kindred or old family friendship.—2d. We have lately had the privilege of hearing great performers on the violin, and the legitimate office of genius is, not to make as averse to every thing of the same kind less admirable, but to educate us to appreciate all degrees of excellence. So do the great masters themselves, they know how to value the least sprout from the parent tree that has true life in it. The unfledged adorer of Raphael thinks to pay him reverence by prizing him alone; but Raphael, himself, knew how to prize the attainments of each and all his pupils. 3d. The inference is fair that the talent so various, flexible and keenly apprehensive, shown by Burke in early life, will lead him to still higher excellence in the chosen profession of his manhood. 4th. He is disposed to remain among us, and it is not only desirable, but indispensable to the education of taste in the country that we should have excellent artists domesticated among us. It is not by star-gazing or running after novelties because new, even if they be really good also, but by familiar, steady love that we can learn to prize the arts and receive their benefits. Let us try to make of this country, not merely a harvest field through which the visitor must run quickly, like a thief, in order to carry away the golden reward for which alone he seeks us—but the home of genius, to whose bright fires of sympathy it will ever long to return in search of genial warmth.*
“Concert of Mr. Burke on Tuesday Evening.” New-York Daily Tribune, 22 December 1845, p. 2.
