PAGANINI.
WE went to bear PAGANINI on Wednesday night. The concert was announced as his "last"—and probably it will be so. PAGA- NINI has eeased to attract any hearers, and therefore will cease to play. It was curious to witness the change in the number and character of his auditors. During his first season, the doors of the King's Theatre were surrounded by crowds an hour before his concerts commenced; the avenues were strongly barricadoed, to prevent bruises and broken limbs; PisnArsisn was the universal topic of the day, and every body went to hear him. On Wednes- day night, we entered the Operahouse at eight o'clock • the boxes were empty, literally empty ; the pit contained about one hundred auditors; and of those, but a few belonged to the amusement- seekers of the metropolis. They were chiefly foreigners, and sober- looking countrymen, blissfully ignorant of the caprices of fitsbion, who, in the simplicity of their hearts, thought PAGANINI as fa- mous as ever, and regarded the deserted appearance of the theatre with amazement.
His performance exhibited no novelty : the pieces were the same that we had heard and reported upon before : there was the same one-stringed display—the same union of the bow and the pizzicato—the same extraordinary command of the harmonics— the same strange combination of noises. But all exhibitions which are merely wonderful, soon lose their bold on the public attention: it is for those which combine genius, taste, and ex- pression, to maintain it: and hence DE BERIOT is heard with in- creased delight every visit he pays us, while PAClANINI'S popu- larity is at an end.
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