20 AUGUST 1831, Page 22

Gems a. la Paganini. Book I. and II. By I.

MOSCHELES. Mr. MOSCHELES occasionally stoops to the composition of pieces which are intended to meet a temporary demand, and to confer a very epheme- ral reputation. To this class of pianoforte music may be referred these (so-called) "Gems." They are shreds and patches of some of PAGA.NiNt's concertos, moulded into shape for the pianoforte, introduced by certain of those break-neck passages (in this instance appropriate enough) which leap or tumble from one end of a 64 octave pianoforte to the other. Supposing the thing worth doing, Mr. MOSCHELES has, of course, done it well ; and the purchaser of these "Gems" will find on their title- page a lithograph of the Signors physiognomy.