The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-09-06 00:00:00

WHO IS PRINCE GEORGE GALITZIN

The arrival in England `of this illustrious nobleman
and justly celebrated amateur, although occurring so
late in the season, has produced a sensation of no
ordinary kind in musical circles, The two concerts of
Russian music, vocal and instrumental, given by the
Prince in the splendid and capacious locality of St.
James's-hall, and attended by crowded and enthusiastic
audiences, will long be remembered. The programmes,
full of interest of a wholly novel character, not only
introduced national Russian music—by Bortniansky,
Glinka, and others—hitherto unknown to England, but
enabled the Prince himself to figure both as composer
and conductor, with brilliant and well-merited success.
His " Sanctus" and " Pater noster" showed his intimate
conversance with the ecclesiastical style, while hiErlier-
zen Valse and Kozlow-Polka (or Surprise-Polka, accord-
ing to its English denomination) proved him no less a
master and inventor in the domain of Terpsichorean
harmony. More recently, at the concerts held in Floral-
hall, connected with the Royal Italian Opera, the Prince
has met with an equally flattering reception, his Russian
Quadrille and Lelia Polka—which have nightly raised a
furore—more than sustained his high reputation as a
'composer of dance-music. In short, the appearances of
Prince George Galitzin before the London public have
led to a series of veritable " ovations."
If he were not illustrious on account of his rank as
one of the first dignitaries of the Moscovite Empire, and
as a scion of one of the oldest and most influential
Russian families, Prince Galitzin, would be entitled to
consideration in the musical world, as the son of that
aristocratic and distinguished amateur of the " divine
art," Prince Nicholas Galitzin, for whom the renowed
Beethoven composed and to Whom he dedicated three of
his most famous quartets, which have always been
esteemed as the most remarkable of the so-called "Pos-
thumous" works of the master. But, independently of
his birth independently of the fact of his being
descended from Prince Soltykoff, Field Marshal and
Regent Of the Russian Empire in the historically-critical
year 1815, George Galitzin has done more than, sufficient
in the musical art to win for his name an honourable
eminence. Educated at the Imperial Court, he studied
composition under Glinka, and singing under Tamburini
and Lablache. So profound a knowledge did he acquire
of the vocal art, that.he trained up.a number of serfs on
his estates in, Tanalaoff, in his own private " chapel," and
his private choir ultimately became noted as the most
admirable in Russia.' At the coronation of the Emperor
Alexander H., in Moscow, Prince Galitzin'a Tamboff
Choir excited almost as much curiosity and interest as
that magnificent and imposing ceremonial itself. His
services in promoting the civilisation and instruction of
the masses at length becaroo so unanimously- acknow-
ledged, that he was c,ppointed Grand Marshal of the
Tamboff nobility, and Chamberlain, successively, to the
Emperors Nicholas and Alexander.

The cause of Prince Galitzin's quitting his native
country and adopting music as a profession was purely,
political. Notwithstanding his exalted rank, and the
high place he held in the Imperial councils (which,
among other things, led to his being attached to the
staff of Prince Gortschakoff, Generalissimo of the Russian
army, in the Crimean war), George Galitzin was so
wedded to the cause of liberal and constitutional govern-
ment, and the general welfare and happiness of the
people, that he became insensibly' implicated in move-
ments that in this free country would simply have been
styled "progressive," but in a pure-despotism like the
Empire of Ityslia4 were denounced as revolutionary.
Convicted of ei;etertainiug, a political correspondence of a
tendency with England, he was condemned to
reside on an estate of his own at Kozlow, where for the
space of two years he lived in comparative exile.
Relieved from this involuntary seclusion, he was taxed
with connivance, more or less grave, in what was
termed a conspiracy against the Russian Govern-
ment, but which was really only another innova-
tion in the direction of Kberal politics, To avoid
banishment into Siberia, he contrived to elude the
vigilance of lr accusers, and effected his escape
from the country of his birth, Concealed in a post-
cha,ise, covered over with straw, he travelled for up-
wards of two months, tilt, reaching the frontier, he with
great danger end difficulty obtained a passage to
Constantinople. Thence he made his way to Egypt,
and ultimately, by the kindness and hospitality of
Captain Park, commander of the Sophia (Sociid
Grecque Orin dale), he found means to bathe the pursuit
of his enemies, and arrived safely in Great Britain. His
visit to our shores, under these extraordinary circum-
stances, has provided the English public with what has
long been a desideratum--viz., something at once
interesting and new in the way of musical composition
and performance. Prince Galitzin would have been
welcome merely, as a martyr to liberal principles, is
doubly welcome, combining, as he does, and with this,
the capacity of a meritorious and thoroughly original
musician---an accomplished professor in short, of' one of
the mast delightful and humanising of the arts.

[Prince Galitzin, as will be seenfrorn our advertising
columns, will appear at the Philharmonic Hall, at the
Jullien concerts, on the euring of the 14th and the
morning of the 15th of the present month.]

CLEVER, CAPTURE OF AN ABSCONDING