“Last evening at Steinway Hall a concert was given by Mr. Barthelemi Laurent (formerly of the Paris Conservatory), assisted by Mlle. Therese Norton, Mr. G. Marzka, Mr. F. Bergner and a few members of the Philharmonic orchestra under the direction of Carl Bergmann. The principal pieces on the programme were [see above].

The very incomplete orchestra played the overture and accompaniments to the concerto with great smoothness and care. Mr. Laurent performed his solos very creditably, and in the ‘Beethoven Trio’ succeeded admirably well. It must be confessed, however, that his étude, ‘Tourbillon,’ seemed uninteresting and slightly out of place, consisting merely of a ‘figure’ specially designed with reference to the conformation of the hand and the facility of playing it with great rapidity, and a melody planned in such a manner that the continuous repetitions of this figure might not in any way suffer interruption. However brilliant such pieces may be they seldom attract audiences similar to those accustomed to assemble in Steinway Hall, for their inherent weakness and want of merit as works of art worthy of serious attention is at once perceived, and the commonplace, unattractive melody cannot be made to appear beautiful by the most elaborate ornamentation.

Miss Therese Norton failed to display great powers as a vocalist; but she was encored and appeared to find favor with the audience, which was, however, extremely small and occasionally impatient; for the concert began half an hour after the appointed time and the pauses between each piece were very long.”

“An exceedingly small audience went to Steinway Hall last night to hear a newly arrived pianist, M. Laurent. He was assisted by an orchestra—a contralto, Miss Norton; a violinist, Mr. Matzka, and a violoncellist, Mr. Bergner. M. Laurent appeared in the G minor concerto of Mendelssohn, an etude of his own, a trio of Beethoven and Prudent’s ‘Lucia’ fantasia. As a virtuoso he did not exhibit qualities to any of our local artists, and, in fact, was far inferior to some of them. He has not yet emancipated himself from the routine of the Conservatoire, and is hardly out of the pupil’s swaddling clothes. A hard, unsympathetic touch and unsatisfactory style of phrasing are the characteristics of his playing. His compositions do not call for commendation in any sense of the word, and the contralto did not attain success. We have so many excellent pianists in this city that strangers, [illegible] of the Rubinstein order, have hard work before them to convince the public that they possess attractions of more than ordinary kind. The concert and the attendance last evening showed it.”