The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-06-28 00:00:00

THE HANDEL FESTIVAL.

The one great musical performance of the past week
has relapsed all the ordinary operatic entertainments
and concerts. The Handel Festival has teken place.
The hundredth anniversary of the death of the great
composer has been celebrated, and the Crystal Palace
" Commemoration" now belongs to the history of mom-
cal art in which its place is marked as of the most
multitudinous performance that laiis ever taken place
since or before the building of Solomon's Temple.
' The first concert of Nebuchadnezzar in which, as in
Verdi's " Nabucodouoeor," all kinds of musical instru-
ments wcre employed, does not appear to have included
the services of any vocalists. The orchestral interludes
which were heard alternately with this cries of the
wounded and the dying in the Roman circuses, must
have been barbarous as regards We quality of the
music. In the middle ages there was no music at all
except the twanging of the troubader'a harp and the
siuging of the truuliador ; which, if the meanest repre•
scsitative of the "Trovature" could hear lie would
doubtless despise. In the days of Handel himself a 100
instrumentalists and 50 choristers formed an orchestra
sod chorus which, in point of numbers, were thought
to be ivaimproethable ; and in the., latter times the
open-air musical festival in honour of the curenatem of
.tlexander 11. of Ramie, and the great musical celebra-
tion in Paris which marked the dosing of the uisiversal
exhibition of 1855. Stupendous as were the forces
engaged, especially at the former, neither of them were
such important affairs. even in a numuerical point of
view, as the great Handel Commemoration. We have
no wish to continue the boasta as to England being the
only country in which such a performance could have
taken place; but, although a performance on an equally
grand scale might be organised more easily in lrerineny,
where the number of skilled musicians and vocalists is
infinitely greater than in England, and although—re-
membering the four operatic theatres in the French
capital, the Conservatoire, the brwich Conservatoinsa at
'Toulouse and Lille, the large number ut reepodable
orchestras in other loovinciel towns (eek:Rove in Eng-
land, in spite of all that is written here about the uni-
versal tentralizatioe that prevail. in Frame) we cannot
douht the possibility of arrauging without much trouble
• similar festival au Paris, the difficialty in both coun-
tries would bets obtain a imuilding muoficiently large for
the performance; and in France it would not be easy to
name any one great composer whoau works are as fami•
liar to the various choral societes as those of Handel
sre to the metropolitan awl provintial sesociations of
England. In one beetle it cannot he dewed that, Saxon
as lie was, that Handel is really our natioual composer.
lie was as much an Emaglishauan as the Corsican Napo-
leon or the Geneve's° Rousseau were Freuclimen, ISis
music forms part of the national life of the country.
The fact is, Handel was one of the great annotater.i of
the world; And in Englaud the poorest country in
Europe in respect to music (of countries deserving the
name), lie stands far above all othercomposers, timo igli,
of course, in his own country, that of Mussrt and Beeth-
oven, no such position could be assigned to him. The
chorus aud march from "Judas Maccabews," the auost
generally interesting, and, in many respectis, the finest
of all Hatidel's oratorios, are as completely " national,"
as " God save the Queen," or "Rule liritanana ;"
so
also is tho'' Dead Mereh from Saul," the latter being the
indispensable accompaniment to all military state
funerals, as "See the Conoureing Hero" is to all
triumphs, whether of • successful vedryinan or of the
hero of • hundred fights. We believe that even the
frequenters of Exeter Hall feel the beauty and grandeur
of Handel'a choral pieces. The name of Handel is indie-
solmably connected with English festivals and English
part-singing.
The festival at the Crystal Palace was a great success,
especially on the Monday, when Handel's made inside,
and the rain outside, gave a thoroughly English charac-
ter to the scene. Our morning contemporaries have in-
formed the public, through their various criti., that
the public listened with the deepest attention; but •
letter from • member of the choir, published in the
Times of Wednesday, says that half the audience not
only laid no attention to the made, but inside so muela
noise as to prevent the other half from enjoying it. It
is • fad that the rush to Mr. Strange's refreshment-
rooms at the end of each part of the oratorio was as pre-
cipitate as it was unbecoming. People who du not care
for the "Messiah "should have stopped away altogether,
and those who only admire portions of it ought certainly
to have had sufficient good taste not to disturb those to
whom every bar is • pleasure.
The eastern gallery, to which the representatives of
the press were admitted, commanded an admirable view
of the orchestra, from which it was divided by the
whole length of the entire transept. M. Costa was
standing up, baton in hand, with his back to the public,
And his face, as • matter of course, toward the orchestra.
Mr. Costa moon the premiere pia* of the picture. On
the second plan is the band, arranged in the form of an
oval, with the ends to the right and left of them:undue
tor. The shell (a good thick one) of this egg is repre-
sented by the violincelli and double basses • for the
white, the violins may be said to stand ; ad in time
interior, the inmost yoke, are the great body of the bass
and wood instruuienta. Behind the orchestral egg are
• three enormous kettle druimi, like custard cups, the
parchment of yellowish white 'Nerving to complete the
resemblance. Behind the kettle-drama is what, with
equal propriety, might be called a frying-pan drum (in
the shape of • tambourine) ; then we have • little
channel of chorus, belonging to the great choral ocean,
which surrounds the orchestra on all dd., except where
the conductor stands ; and, at the back of all, the wag-
nifirent organ by Messrs. Gray and Davidson. The dma
position of the baud and chorus appeared to us admire
mile ; and, indeed, the performance meet have convinced
everyone present that the must perfect balance of sound
as between voices and instruments, lied been obtained.
Last year, at the preliminary celebration, it was gene-
rally observed that • great deal of the effect that should
have been produced by the combination of so enurauous
a number of executants was lost. There was nothing
to resist the waves of sonority—or rather, the resistanee
VIM insufficient, and thecousequence• vsguenessof effect,
such as characterises musical perforinantes in the open
air. Profiting by the experiments of 1857 the directors
have now caused the Handel orchestra to be surrounded
by wood, and, in default of a.nythiug hetter, had a vast
sheet or sail spread over the top. Time result was •
remarkable improvement in both the quantity and
quality of time wend, which way be attributed to the
compression exercised upon it, and which would be 'dill
more remarkable if by any possibility the covering could
have been made of wood, than which nothing la more
favourable to sonority. However, let us speak only of
Actual results. In time eastern gallery, where if there
were any great fault in the orchestral arrangements it
womilml first if all have been perceived, there was no
confusion of sound when the grimiest amid lousiest
churusses were being execute m, and Mslame Clara
Novelle, singing pianiasiino, was heard distinctly. We
believe the average number of visitors amounted to
nearly 20.000 each slay.
Misgivings that tlie death of the Grand Duchess
Dowager of Prated*, mother of the Princess of Prussia,
.siel grandmother of the husband of the Princess Royal
of England. would forbid the attendance of Her Majesty
min Friday, the last day, appear to have
been well founded since the Prince Consort arrived un-
attended by Her Mtjesty. His Royal Highness MY se-
coma...Weil by the Princess Alice, Princess Helena, the
Count de Flanders, and a numerous suite. The Royal
party drove to the Crystal Palace in their open carriages,
in scarlet liveries, proceeding by Vauxhall-bridge, South
Lambeth, Stockwell, Alpha-road, anal Brixton. They
were received by Sir Joseph Paxton, Mr. Fareuliar (the
chairman), Mr. Howley (the manager), Mr. Denby Sey-
mour, M.P., Mr. Grove (the seeretary),and several other
of the directors, who conducted the Royal party to the
state compartment fitted up in the first gallery of the
Eastern Transept, and as His Royal Highness the Pratt=
Consort entered, the orchestra pealed forth the majestic
strains of the National Anthem, the audience rising
anuultaneonely with the orchestra. The solo ports were
gulag hy Madame Clara Novelle, Miss Dolby, and Mr.
Sims Reeves; and it i• needk-ss to say the effect wan
Cgroasnuid
hi.Afbitertoanpa.usia of
ci
the
mko.inturte.
with commenced the oratorio of Israel in Eqpt. Be-
sides the ladies and gentlemen already named. Madame
Rudersdorff, Madame Lenamens Sherrington, Mr. Weiss,
and Signor Belletti lent their aid to the performance,
which was listened to with almost breathless admiration.
The splendour of the spectacle which the auditory pre-
eented was not a little increased be the beauty of the
Royal box. The weather was all that could be desired,
and the dame of the commemoration, like its opening,
has been a complete 111100elial.

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Scrofulous end licerbutie Eruptions.—lf this powerful Oint-
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and they lurarinbly facilitate end OIIAfID the conquest. of lb.
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rigour to the vital function&