The three chief numbers of this fine programme were a trio in C-minor, op. 102, by Raff; a sonata in F-major, No. 9, by Mozart; and Schubert’s posthumous quartette in D-minor. The Raff trio was new to Boston. It is a long and elaborate work, the absolute merit of which is not to be pronounced upon after a single hearing. That it is startlingly brilliant and striking in at least two of its numbers is plain at once, however; and there can be no denying or doubting its great vigor and originality. The _scherzo_ has remarkable ingenuity in its harmonic forms and instrumental combinations; and the _andante_, amazing in its melodic variety and richness, and reflecting, apparently, many moods of the composer’s mind, yet produces a unity of impression which proves the presence of a strong and self-poised genius. The Mozart sonata for violin and piano is exceedingly interesting in all its three movements, light and airy in its general character,—except in the _andante_, which is touched with pensiveness,—and not striking very far down in its suggestions, but full of fresh beauty and consummate in its symmetrical grace. In the happiest contrast with the sonata was the wonderful D-minor quartette of Schubert. No better illustration of the marked divergence between the modes of expression natural to two master composers could have been chosen than these. The invariable law of Mozart’s genius—in spite of, or perhaps, in aid of its broad inclusiveness—is condensation or conciseness; of Schubert’s, it is expansion and diffusiveness. But where the genius is so vital and inspiring as that which shines in every line of the D-minor quartette, the amplitude never degenerates into tediousness. There may be profusion in the host’s providing, but no surfeit in the guest’s appetite.