AIENDELSSOHN.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR:1
have no desire to call in question your critic's verdict on my book, which is indeed, I feel, in general, more favourable than I deserve. There is, however, one passage in the review to which I beg to refer. It is as follows :—" Her description, again, of Mendelssohn's first pianoforte concerto as a 'piece of enormous difficulty, from beginning to end one maze of in- tricate passages,' surely overshoots the mark," &c., "and seems to bespeak unfamiliarity with the work in question." Had I indeed spoken in these terms of Mendelssohn's first pianoforte concerto, it would prove " unfamiliarity " with a very well-known work, and I should have deserved your critic's severest rebuke. I must, however, admit that the narrative in my book is not so clear as it might be ; but a careful reading will show that my description of a piece as "of enormous difficulty" refers, not to Mendelssohn's first concerto, but to the piece already played, in which the young lady failed. The piece "of enormous difficulty" was in fact, though not so stated, a concert-study of Liszt's.—I am, Sir, &c., BETTINA WALKER.
33 Upper Gloucester Place, Dorset Square, November 24th.
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