The Press. — London, England, 1857-06-20 00:00:00

610 "John Halifax" we cannot help thinking that the rapid production of magazine tales must have a tendency to weaken and waste powers that were in tend,d for more sustained efforts. _ _ _ " Helen and Olga" (2) is the story of an English governess in a Russian family. It is written in a very pleasant style, and gives a tolerably impartial picture of Russian society. Olga, the Russian young lady, is very lively and attractive, and her gradual improvement under the influence of the young Eng fish woman very interesting. The following sketch of a Russian country house is worth quotation : They were now at the door of a dilapidated old stone mansion, which, facing the north, and surrounded by untidy, neglected plantations, looked gloomy enough; but yet more than respectable—dignified. Stephanie had already arrived, and awaited them among a group of servants in the hall. Olga led the way through a vestibule and ante-room to the drawing•room. It was more stately, but more shabby, than Helen had expected. An old yellow flock paper with tarnished gold moulding covered the damp walls; some large misty mirrors and portraits, by different and indifferent artists, hung round the room ; the heavily-carved chairs and sofas, not of the cinque-cento school, were covered with faded and dirty yellow satin; there were no books, flowers, vases, or musical instruments to give any air of elegance. " My pianoforte is in my own dressing room," said Olga. " I will have it brought down tomorrow ; but hitherto I have had no one in the house whom I cared to play to or please, except, indeed, Henri, when he came to shoot wild ducks. Well, Helen, what is your impression ?" "I have hardly had time to form one," said Helen. " Give me till to•morrow." " Unfavourable of course," said Olga, laughing. " Well, it cannot be helped. ro me it never looked so cheerful as your presence makes it already. To-morrow we will set things in order. Meanwhile, I will show you your room, which is close to mine ; so you need have no fears, even in this old rambling house, wherein the ghost of my great• grandfather is said to walk, robed in a long caftan, on windy, wintry nights. There is no need for us to dress for one another—we will have coffee, stroll up the lime-tree alley to the river, come home to eat strawberry ice, chat a little, read a little, and go to bed." Helen found the premises included a long disused concert-room and theatre, but neither chapel nor library. Her own room was hung with a common striped paper, decorated with some po3r prints and small pictures of saints ; with an old-fashioned toilette-glass in a dark wooden frame carved in flourishes like curled leaves. It looked out on an orchard full of crooked apple, cherry, and plum trees overgrown with moss, and well populated, apparently. by jackdaws, sparrows, and squirrels. A wooden wall divided the orchard from a kitchen-garden, full of cabbages, onions, carrots, and common potherbs ; beyond which were corn-fields, and the thatched roofs of a ew cottages. Olga's room, which was only divided from Helen's by a dressing room, had a different aspect, and a prettier look out, though there was something desolate iu the acces s wies of a broken fountain, an overturned atoae urn, a headless statue lying among the long grass, and a ruinous p "To Be or Not to Be " (3) is a religious story which we do not much admire. It contains, however, certain powerfully-written passages, of which the following is a sample. We may premise that the scene is laid at the time of the cholera in Denmark, and the sufferer is the betrothed of Niels Bryde : But he was soon awakened: a message had come from Herr Arons ; Esther had been taken ill, her family were in the greatest consternation, and the physician who had attended them in Copenhagen had been sent for ; but she had expressed a wiTh to see Niels Bryde, therefore the car riage had been despatched for him. Niels Bryde experienced a shock such as he had never before felt. Esther ill ! She, whom but the previous day he had seen glowing in health, and sparkling with anima tiou! He threw himself into the carriage, and bade the coachman drive fast. Sad faces met him. " She is dying!" said the mother. nance has changed." " Her whole counte- " That need not cause any fear," said Niels Bryde, though he felt hie heart beat faster. He entered l'er neat bedroom, the walls of which were covered with engravings. Esther was lying with her eyes closed, pale, with features expressive of exhanstion ; the cold grasp of Death had already changed her countenance —for that she was about to become his prey, there could not be a doubt. That face, yesterday so lighted up with smiles, so sparkling with intellect, so blooming with health, how altered it was ! The features were sharp, the smile round her mouth was a furrow, and under the closed eyes, hitherto so full of intelligence, was a dark blue line. She opened her eyes, after a time, and looked about her; she perceived that Niels Itryde was there, bid it was only as if through a mist that she saw hint. He felt her breathing; it was icescold, like the air in a deep cold well in summer• time. " Thank you for coming," she said ; her voice sounded if it had come from a distance. " Only tell me, will it be over soon ? Science says that this is— " " Death !" said Niels Bryde, involuntarily and calmly— he was stupefied by this unexpected misfortune. Every thing seemed swimming round with him. "And Faith says," she whispered, it is Life r —she p onounced the last word with emphasis, while she pressed his hand in hers. It was not a moment for conversation, not another word was said. Her eyes seemed to sink (2) Helen and Olga. A Russian Tale. By the Arthur of Mary Powell." London: Arthur Hall and Cu. (3) To B.; or Not to Be A Novel. By Hans Christian Altdotion, Author of ° Tho Liaprovlsotore." Loudon ; Bentley. THE PRESS. deeper in, and as when warm air passes over a figure of ice it loses its impressed shape, thus annihilation passed over that form the soul's image of beauty, her hand became like marble, and yet it grasped firmly. "It is life !" These three words were the bridge between " To be or not to be ?" here, amidst those who loved her. " She is dead !" sobbed her mother. " Dead !" was echoed around, but not uttered by Niels Ttryde, he had not that word on his lips or in his mind. Esther, in whom were centred his happiest thoughts, she the bright, clear, living spirit, away—extinguished ! Ex tinguished like a fire, with nothing but ashes remaining of her! Ashes that never more could be revived! No, he could not entertain that thought, could not admit that idea; he felt convinced that she was not dead, passed fur ever front consciousness and life into nothingness. "The Buccaneer" (4) is a good old-fashioned story of the days of the Commonwealth. There is the bold buccaneer with a savage manner and a good heart; the hypocritical Puritan, who quotes Scripture and seduces women ; the secret cave by the seashore, and the old manor- house with its oak chambers; two graceful heroines in high and low life respectively, and the proper amount of heroes to match. For our part, we must confess we have a lingering regard for this species of fiction. Novels of high art and low morals, and high morals and low art—novels with " a purpose "—novels religious, social, and political, have so taken possession of this department of literature, that a tale in the old style of adventures, conspiracies, and escapes, with a wholesome odour of gunpowder and burning mixed with the gleam of rapiers and the glimmer of blue scarfs, has become uncommonly refreshing. All this Mrs. Hall provides for us ; the incidents are strung together with a skilful hand, and set off by the advantages of a light and practised style. " Olive " (5), a reprint of a very charming story, demands but few words. It is written, as all novel. readers must remember, with great power and pathos, and it most thoroughly deserves a place among the cheap editions of the day. " Fides " (6) is a tale composed, no doubt, with the very best intentions. We are sorry to say, how ever, that, apparently from want of practice in com position, the work on the whole is a failure. The events are jumbled into one another, and the changes of disposition on the part of the principal characters are insufficiently explained. The writer would seem to possess a certain amount of ability, and with due labour and self•discipline may, perhaps, succeed hereafter. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED-TONE 18. BOOKS. The Two Aristocracies. A Novel. By Mrs. Gore. 3 vols. Hurst and Blackett Magdalen Stqfford ; or, a Gleam of Sunshine on a Rainy Day. Bell and Daldy Oran and other Poems. By Alexander T. M'Clean. T. Murray and Son The Legend of Gkncore and other Poems. By the Rev. John Anderson. Longmans Pictures of the Heavens. Mozley A Concordance of the Prayer Book Version of the Psalms. Mozley Such is Life. By " Doubleyou." Eyre French and English Phrase. Book. Lambert and Co. The Curse of the Black Lady. A Legend of Brabant. Hodgson L'Elat de la Question Napolitaine. Dolman The Farmer's Boy. By Robert Bloomfield. Sampson Low PAMPHLF.T9. Instructions in the Art of Swimming. By C. Richardson, Esq. Ridgway—Block Plans for the New Got - eminent Offices. Ridgway— Vacation Thoughts on Capital Punish ments. Cash—('atalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery. Spottiswoode. COSTA'S " Eta."—At Exeter•hall, on Wednesday night, the Sacred Harmonic Society paid their provincial visitors the graceful compliment of inviting them to a splendid performance of the conductor's oratorio, Eli, the principal parts sung by Mme. Novelle, Miss Dolby, Sims Reeves, Montem Smith, Weiss, and Formes. Reeves was encored en• thusiastically in the exciting " War song," and the unaccompanied quartet in the second part was also tedemanded. Despite of the morning's fatigue at the Crystal Palace, the executants were quite up to the mark. TIIE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM, as soon as her Majesty and the members of the Legislature have paid private visits to it, will be opened to the public, both in the daytime and the evening, on and after Wednes day, the 24th inst. Besides the various collections of architecture, sculpture, patented inventions, &c., the Sheepshanks pictures will be exhibited in the new gallery erected expressly to receive them. The admission of the public to the museum lighted up in the evening is the first experiment of the kind with a public institution, and it is hoped will be acceptable to those who work in the daytime. (4) The Buccaneer. By Mrs. S. C. Hall. London: Hodgson. (5) olive. A Novel. By the Author of " The Ogilvies. Lon,lon : Chapman and Hall. (6) Fides. By the Author of " Gabrielle, or the Sisters," 4tc. Loudon: Newby. SATURDAY, J' it S i C. HANDEL MUSICAL FESTIVAL. FOR the last four or five years a prospectus has been in circulation, chiefly in professional circles, to have another Festival in Westminster Abbey, but the extinction of the Ancient Concerts, under the auspices of the directors of which, the last Handelian demonstration took place in 1834, seems to have taken from the professors the requisite energy to carry out their scheme. In that year the band consisted of 223 players, 180 from London and 43 from the country. The chorus comprised 358 voices, of whom 200 were from London and 158 from the provinces. Adding the 45 principal vocalists, the total strength was about 600. There were patrons and vice-patrons in all the members of the Royal Family; there were nearly sixty presidents of the highest noble and political celebrities ; there were directors of the Ancient Concerts, with titled trea surer and hon. secretary ; but the real organisation of the festival wan in the hands of the deceased Mr. Parry, Sir George Smart, Messrs. Hawes and Harris. Sir George Smart was the conductor, and the organists were no less than seven—namely, Messrs. Novello, Attwood, Sir H. R. Bishop, Turk, Dr. Crotch, Mr. Adams, and Mr. W. Knyvett. There were also four leaders of the band—namely, Signor Spagnoletti, T. Cooke, Weichsel, Mori, and F. Cramer. There were also four principal second violins—namely, John Loder, Watts, C. Reeve, and Wagstaff. Of these performances, which were on the 24th, 26th, 28th of June, and July Ist, we have a vivid recollection. There were three private re hearsals of the chorus at the Store-street Rooms and four public rehearsals at the Abbey. Amongst the leading singers still living are the Dowager Countess of Essex, Mme. Caradori Allan, Mme. Stockhausen, Lady Bishop, Miss Romer, Miss Sher reff, Miss Masson, Mme. Clara Novelle, Mr. Henry Phillips, Mr. J. Bennett, Mr. Hobbs, Messrs. F. and W. Robinson (of Dublin, Mr. Stretton, Prof. Taylor, Mr. Machin, Grisi, Ivanoff the Tartar tenor, and Tam burini. Haydn's Creation, Handel's Messiah and Israel in Egypt, were given in their entirety, and there were selections from Judas Maccabeus, Samson, Jephtha, with gleanings from Beethoven, Mozart, Leo, Purcell, Pergolesi, and Himmel. This festival was justly regarded as a great musical treat, considering the state of executive orchestral and choral talent at the period. It is curious that whereas in the two last specified departments art has gained so much in the metropolis, how much it has lost numerically in principal singers. Clara Novelle remains as the queen of sopranos, but tenors, basses, and contraltos are now remarkably scarce. In 1835 was the Amateur Musical Festival, at Exeter-hall, of the Sacred Harmonic Society; and from that event must be dated the commencement of the improvement in choral practice, which has extended itself to our provincial festivals. The assumption of the baton at the Philharmonic concerts by Costa in 1846, the formation of the Royal Italian Opera at Govent Garden in 1847, and the subsequent accep • tance by Costa of the conductorship of the Sacred Harmonic Society, produced successive revolutions in orchestral performances. These events led not only to an extended knowledge of secular and sac►ed music in the metropolis, but have vastly ameliorated the general execution at the ancient country gather ings. Birmingham took the lead in this movement, and has honourably maintained her proud position of supremacy; and further north, in the midst of the smoke of furnaces, a town of modern manufac • Luring fame—Bradford—has taken the stand amongst periodical festivals. The appeal made to England to support a subscription for a monument to Handel, at the place of his birth, with the avowed intention to hold a commemoration in various parts of Ger many, appears to have been the incentive to action for the present demonstration. In October last the Sacred Harmonic Society issued its manifesto for a festival, to be merely anticipatory howcver of the Brand Musical Congress in 1859, the centenary of Handel's death. An alliance, "offensive and de fensive," was made with the Crystal Palace Com pany. The exact terms of the treaty have not transpired. Quoad the Sacred Harmonic Society, the basis was that of art progress, for it was stipulated that Handel's oratorios were to be given in a com plete form, and The Messiah, Judas Maccabeus, and Israel in Egypt, were the works at once announced, and have been duly given, last Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the 15th, 17th, and 10th of June. The numbers in round figures of the festivals at the Abbey in 1784 were over 500, and in 1834 nearly 600. At tile Crystal Palace the effective returns were over 2,4oo—more than 500 to each of the four vocal parts, the orchestra numbering about 385. The chorus included about 1,000 metropolitan amateurs, 200 provincial chorales, tend about 850 provincial singers ,