We can hardly," he declared, "recall a composition so full of astonishing and unprecedented effects [it will be recalled that this concerto was composed in 1882, when MacDowell was nineteen years old].
The work was evidently written at white heat; its brilliancy and vigour are astounding.

The impression it made upon us, in other respects, is as yet rather undigested...

But its fire and forcibleness are unmistakable." These opinions are of interest, for they testify to the prompt and ungrudging recognition which was accorded to MacDowell's work, from the first, by responsible critics in his own country.
He might well have felt some pride in the sum of his achievements at this time.

He had not completed his twenty-seventh year; yet he had published a concerto and two orchestral works of important dimensions--"Hamlet and Ophelia" and "Lancelot and Elaine"; most of the music that he had so far written had been publicly performed, and almost invariably praised with warmth; and he was becoming known in Europe and at home.

His material affairs, however, were far from being in a satisfactory or promising condition; for there was little more than a precarious income to be counted upon from his compositions; and he had given up teaching.