It remains, even to-day, one of MacDowell's most characteristic and admirable performances.
Of the "Romance" for 'cello and orchestra (op.

35), the Concert Study (op.

36), and "Les Orientales" (op.

37),--three _morceaux_ for piano, after Victor Hugo,--there is no need to speak in detail.
"Perfunctory" is the word which one must use to describe the creative impulse of which they are the ungrateful legacy--an impulse less spontaneous, there is reason to believe, than utilitarian.

Perhaps they may most justly be characterised as almost the only instances in which MacDowell gave heed to the possibility of a reward not primarily and exclusively artistic.