The Press. — London, England, 1858-07-03 00:00:00

tlune eyes " (Elijah ),Idendelssohn.—Chorns, " When His loud voice" (Jephtha), Handel.—Chorus, " The Lord is good " (Eli), Costa.—Quartet and Chorus, " Holy, holy " ( F.lijsh), Mendelssoha.—Motet, " Ave verum corpus," Me:Art.—Song end Chorus—" Philistines, hark !" Costa. PART H.—Chorns, " Oh, the pleasure of the plains," Handel. —Part song, " Farewell to the forest," Mendels sohn.—Chorus, " To Thee, 0 Lord (Mese), Rossini.— Trio and chorus, " See the conquering hero comes," Ilandel.—Solo and chorus, " Colm is the Riau) , ocean" (Idomeneo), Mozart.—Chorus, " Hear, Holy Poser" (Masaniello), Auber.—National Anthem. It was wise to have so well varied a programme, and wiser still to limit the performances to one. The present taste for monster concerts cannot, we hope and believe, be more than a mere fashion ; and fashions are apt to wear out. It would be awkward if, when the real festival comes at last, people should find they have already had enough. We cannot look upon this as at all a movement in the right direction, or likely to produce any good result. We complain of the chorus singing we meet with at the musiabails in London, because it is wanting, more or less, in accuracy, delicacy, and refinement. How is this to be remedied by multiplying numbers? It is but increasing and multiplying defects ; we do not find the singing at the Crystal Palace clearer or more certain than at Exeter-hall or St. Martin's, hut very much the reverse. The only good effect which we get from the immense area of the centre transept is a certain softening down of crudities. The shouting of two thousand voices in the larger space is not so harsh as of five hundred in the smaller, merely because the space is increased beyond all proportion. But this is all the good we get; the singing is no better in itself. If you have a hundred indifferent singers, do you make them any better by mixing them up with nine hundred more as imperfect as themselves ? If the object of these demonstrations is to bring about an improvement in choral-singing, we think the means employed most unlikely to pro duce any such result; but if the achievement of grand and startling effects is the thing aimed at, in music only of the broadest and simplest character dots it seem to us to have been attained. There were but three pieces in the programme yesterday which could be called really effective ; and these were the Hundredth Psalm, the National Anthem, and " See the Conquering Hero Comes." In such simple music the choristers could scarcely go wrong; and the accumulation of voices was certainly imposing. But in a complicated chorus, like the one from Jephtha, the only effect of these unwieldly num. bets is to make the whole composition misty and con tused ; while in a gay and sprightly chorus like that from Adis and Galatea the very character of the music is entirely lost. And then the vast space, which certainly has a good effect upon the perform ances of the enormous choir, is utterly destructive of solo singing. Mme. Clara Novello, indeed, showed that it is possible for a very clear and strong soprano voice to be audible as long as the music allows it to be forced to its utmost extent upoo every note. It any one likes to call this singing, be it so ; it is not our idea of singing. Mr. Sims Reeves in the war song from the Eli could scarcely be beard upon half the notes, and the beauty of the remainder was entirely destroyed by the strain put upon them. If he failed, what tenor is likely to succeed? Mme Lemmens Sherrington, Miss Palmer, and Mrs.' Lockey were the other vocalists, and, no doubt, sang very well, but we should not like to venture an opinion. THE MEMBERS OF THE VOCAL ASSOCIATION gave their last concert for the present season, at St. James's•liall, on Wednesday evening. The first part of the programme consisted of Mendelssohn's " Hymn of Praise," and the sec - ind included an overture to Shakespeare's Henry IV., by Herr Joachim, Mozart's pianoforte concerto in E fiat, airs from Oberon and Don Giovanni, a glee of Webbe's, and a madrigal tl Mareiizio. Herr Joachim's over ture attracted a crowd of musicians, all apparently ready and anxious to find in the young violinist a composer of equal genius. The result was no other feeling, we believe, than one of disappointment. The overture is a production of the most ultra-modern school, full of the strangest and most artificial modu lation, and destitute of anything like a clear subject or a defined idea. For ours.elves, we found it impos sible during its performance to get a single glimpse of the composer's meaning, or five minutes afterwards t) recall one solitary phrase. We cannot, however , quite give up our notion that Herr Joachim ought, to be a composer ; he has been carried away by a fashion of the times, but he may be strong enougti to cast it off. Mozart's concerto is not one of his hest works ; there is plenty of teehi:ical skill and fluent prettiness about it, but nothing more. The pianoforte part was played to perfection by Mr. C. Halle. The " Lobgesang " seems to increase in Livour year by year, as may be gathered from the fact that it has been peifurined :some five or six times in J...r ndon during the preseit season. The instrumental prrzian was very well played on THE PRESS, dux 3, 1858. Wednesday--on the whole as well as we have heard it—though the first movement was a little wanting in clearness. The execution of the solo parts was only respectable, and the chorus singing little better than discreditable. Miss Louisa Pyne, Miss Stabbach, and Mr. Montem Smith were the principal vocalists, and delivered the notes with sufficient correct ness ; but Mendelssohn requires a great deal more than this. Miss Pvne's constitutional coldness is fatal to sacred music; Miss Stabbach's voice i , too metallic to mingle with one of such differmt quality as Miss Pyne's ; and Mr. Montem Smith is not in any respect equal to the tenor music. He is but an indifferent vocalist ; his voice has no charm, and his style no dignity. Nevertheless, with a sort of hard correctness, the solo music was got through. We should be glad if we could say as much tor the choral parts. We are not complaining of coarseness and bad tone—we are accustorrosl to expect these whenever we find the advertisements announcing a body of so many hundred performers— but we do complain that the notes were not sung; that in the fugued choruses the parts were not taken up with firmness, and very often not at all ; that two such choruses as " Praise the Lord with lute and harp " and " Let us cast off the works of darkness " were made almost unintelligible by the miserable in accuracy of the performance. We really trust that before next season the directors of the Vocal Asso ciation will look to these matters ; the society holds a prominent position, as the only choral body at the west-end of the town, and might, if well conducted, take high rank. It is all very will to hire an or chestra, to engage pianist 4, violinists, and solo singers, and so with symphonies, concertos, and songs to make up a good and attractive series of concerts ; but if the members of the Vocal Associa tion desire to be of any use or to retain any existence as a society, they must place their chief reliance on themselves. We do not object to the form of their concerts, nor blame them for calling in the assistance of the best artists they can procure ; we are only desirous that their own performances should be in some degree w rthy of such co-op ration. They will not attain this without strict discipline and long and steady practice, but surely such a society ought to aim at nothing less. MISS IiEhIBLE'S CONCERT of last Wednesday, held by favour of the Earl of Ellesmere in the picture gallery of Bridgewater-house, was one of the pleasantest of the season. The artists were all of a high class, and the programme well selected. Mr. C. Halle, Herr Joachim, and Signor Piatti, were the instrumentalists, and Madame Viardot Garcia, Mr. Santley, and Signor Mario, the vocalists. Beethoven's sonata in G (op. 30) was finely ren dered by Mr. C. Halle and Herr Joachim ; the former also contributed a pair of Mendelssohn's scngs without words, and a valse by Chopin ; and Tartini's famous " Songe du :liable" was grandly played by Herr Joachim. Signor Piatti was there too, with his violoncello and a fantasia of his own. Mr. Santley sang the bass air front Rossini's Ste bat Mater, a new song of no great merit by Berger, and Donizetti's buffo duet, " Senza tanti complimenti," with Madame Viardot Garcia, who also displayed her wonderful powers of execution in Pacini's florid air, "Il soave e bel contento." Signor Mario was in good voice, and his air from the Favorita, often as he has repeated it, was as welcome as ever. Miss Kemble herself is a pleasing and efficient singer, not endowed with any remarkable gifts, but of fair ability and good taste. She sang a pair of songs by S:hubert and Mendelssohn, Arne's " Where the bee sucks," the duet " Di Vergogna," from the Marino Falicro, with Mr. Santley, and Rossini's " Mira la bianca luna " with Signor Mario. This last attempt showed more courage then discretion ; the ex perienced artist was rather more than a match for the young vocalist. 't Drain a. ST. JAMES'S THEATRE. ON Friday, the 25th ult., Mme. Ristori appeared as Octavio, in the tragedy of that name. We have felt and said so much on the depreciation of dramatic composition by conversions from the original into a foreign language that we naturally hail with delight the production of a real Italian tragedy, and by a master-hand, at this theatre. A better work in the abstract might, perhaps, have been selected, but for the display of Mme. Ristori's powers no other cha- racter could, we think, be more appropriate. The plot is simple enough. Nero having repudiated his wife, Octavia, and banished her to the shores of Campania, espoused Poppeea, wire of Otho, one of his iiivourites. Octavia's popularity was so great at It me that Nero found it necessary to recall her. Poppcea, on hearing that she was about to return, upbraid, Neto with want of affection for her, and in. 615 sists that Octavia shall be banished yet farther front Rome. In the outpouring of her jealousy she tells him : Ti dico intanto Cbe Ottavia e me, vice ad un tempo entrambo Non Ow una reggia, una citti non cape. • • • Ahi lassa! dal mio cor panel _ppien ease strapper la imuragia tua, Come da to svellermi opero! Of course she abuses Octavia and extols her own disinterestedness, and at last she finishes by ex claiming : Oh, qual puoi farmi immenso Danno ! it tuo awor to mi puoi Virre. Ah ! pria Alia vita prendi : Kasai minor fia'l danno. Whereupon Nero assures her that he abhors her rival more than she does herself, and promises that Octavia shall be the slave, not the rival, of Poppcea. Tigillinus, a sort of confidential officer in Nero's court, having promised his aid to Poppcea in her de termination to cause the destruction of Octavia, seeks his master, whom he finds ripe for any cruelty. Nero declares his intention to put Octavia to death ; bis creature urges the necessity of making ber appear guilty In the eyes of the " empia plebe," and forthwith accuses her of an atrorous interview with her slave Enceras. Nero agrees to make this charge (which Tigillintis undertakes to prove) the handle of Octavia's persecution. The tyrant, who just before had said, Porch'io l'abborro, e res Quest° poss'esser mai, then has an interview with the recalled exile, during which he makes known the accusation that has been put into his mouth. Octavia, who up to this time had been meek, and apparently satisfied to endure anything at the hands of the man whom, notwith standing his many crimes (amongst which the murder of her father and brother), she still adores, at first struck dumb by the horror of the infamy imputed to her. Then she pours out a torrent of lamentations, which were delivered by Mme. Ristori with most thrilling effect. The passage, Oh ! non piu intesa Scellaragine orrenda! Or 'e l'iuiquu Accusatur ? Ma, oime ! stolta, the chieggo , Nerone accuse, e giadica, ed uccide— drew down great applause upon her. It is, cer• tainly, one of the finest in the tragedy. Octavia is immediately afterwards publicly charged with the crime invented for her. Her attendant*, the slave Eucerns inciuded, are put to torture in order to ex tract from them testimony of her guilt. One and all boldly die denying it. Octavia is then charged with sedition and political intrigues. One day is offered to her wherein to prepare her defence. She de clines the offer, but requests that Nero and Poppata will come to her. Meanwhile, she entreats Seneca, who has always acted as her friend, and who is at this time with her, to put her to death. He refuses to comply, alleging, amongst other reasons, his in ability, having no weapon with him. She reminds him that he had told her he always carried poison about his person. He says he has none, but she seizes his hand, and, after a struggle, withdraws front his Huger a ring, in which she knows some is contained. In an instant she has applied it to her lips and sucked in the deadly powder. Nero, with Pappcea and Tigillinas, comes in just in time to receive her last words, which breathe only kindness and forgiveness to her cruel lord. The death scene is so true to life that one could almost fancy Mme. Ristori had studied it from nature. She has died so often and so well, and then risen again, that, when her time actually comes for removal to her ancestors, we shall scarcely know bow to realize her departure hence. On Monday she performed with great power in the weil•known tragedy Phiare, Italianized by F. Dail' Ongero. With a repertory including Medea, Octavia, Phkdre, and others of the same stamp, it is difficult to understand the grounds on which Adrienne Lecouvreur was repeated on Wednesday. The latter seems to bear to the former about the same relation that the worst work of Verdi would have to the best of Mozart. As a rough back ground in a picture is intended to throw out the beauties of the foregreund, so, perhaps, Adrienne was given on Wednesday to heighten the effect to be produced by Medea on Friday. In that view we con gratulate the manager on a decided success. We have nothing new to notice at Her Majesty's Theatre. Louisa Miller on Tuesday, and Il Troratore on Thursday, were performed with nearly the same merits and defects that we have already called attention to. ERRATT3I.—In our last number, under the heading " Her Majesty's Theatre," line 41, for " The latter was encored in Ah! si ben mio," and in the delicious D'arnor sull' all rosee,'" read " The latter was encored in Ah ! si hen mio,' and in the delicious the la morte.'" _A