The Press.
London, England, 1856-09-06 00:00:00

BRADFORD MUSICAL FESTIVAL.

WITHOUT any pretensions to a protracted popularity,
the new works produced under the patronage of the
managing committee may be pronounced to have
been successful, so far as the unbounded applause
of the Bradfordonians can be safely calculated upon.
Worse attempts have been made at psalm-setting in
the metropolis than that essayed by the clever York-
shire chorus master, Mr. Wm. Jackson, in the 103rd
Psalm, in eight parts, conducted by himself. The
local reception must content his ambition—it would
be a deception to assure him a similar ovation out of
his county. Miss Milner, Mr. Montem Smith, and
Mr. Weiss were his chief singers, and did the music
full justice. Mr. Hatton also directed the execution
of his MS. cantata, " Robin Hood." Miss Milner
was the Maid Marian, Mr. Reeves the bold outlaw,
with an air adapted for the tenderest of tenors, a
veritable sucking-dove, and Mr. Weiss was the bishop
who was made to pay the piper in the forest dance.
There were three encores, and a recall fur the com-
poser; but will the cantata be ever heard again in
its entirety ? This may be reasonably doubted, for
the paucity of ideas and the feebleness of treatment
sadly disappointed many amateurs, who had been on
the winch for a long day for something startling and
original from the musician who set so exquisitely the

SATURDAY,

songs of Herrick, and whose works, both in his own
and in a foreign name, haveexcited such marked inte-
rest. Mr. Hatton aimed in " Robin Hood " at a
rollicking gaiety, which lie certes attained, but it is
of the "flee and easy" school, coarse and common_
place. Of a much higher order, and less crude and
uncouth than Mr. Macfarren's ordinarily grim style,
was the cantata " May-day," in which a charming
choral serenade was the most striking piece. Miss
Sherrington was the May Queen, and the work had
the advantage of Costa's direction. The selections
from Mr. Henry Leslie's clever oratorio, Immanuel,
was another graceful and well deserved compliment
paid to the English composers of the day.
One remarkable result of this festival has been tl a
proud position in which it has placed English execu-
tive talent. Of the orchestra, chiefly London players,
and of the chorus, Yorkshire singers, THE PRZ3B has
duly recorded the triumph. But the solo vocalists
exact especial mention. Mme. Clara Novello
taken by some of the provincial critics for a foreign
artiste) and Mr. Sims Reeves of course sang their
very best, but other singers took a step in advance,
such as Mr. and Mrs. Weiss, whilst Miss Milner,
Miss Sherrington, and Miss Fanny Huddart have
placed themselves on very high ground by their
singing at this meeting ; and Mr. Montem Smith and
Mr. Winn, who undertook the secondary tenor and
bass parts, merit unqualified eulogium. Costs had
also the advantage of the Exeter-ball organist, Mr.
J. L. Brownstnith, a judicious accompanyist on that
difficult instrument.

The foreign artistes at the festival as a body did
not shine. True, there was the unequalled genius
of Viardot, singing in all schools, sacred and secular,
with consummate skill, and creating the profoundest
sensation by her grand declamation and irresistible
pathos. True, in the earlier concerts, there was the
incomparable Alb mi with her sympathetic organ and
perfect style. Again, there was Formes with his
ponderous and mea.ured notes, and Belletti with his
rattling method, but Herr Reichardt, Signor Bent.
ventano, and Mile. Piccolomini were godly out cf
place. The Tra via ta heroine made her audience by
the Don Pasquale duo with Belletti, but it was as an
actress. The Halifax Guardian, which, like all the
Yorkshire papers, consecrates whole columns to cri-
ticism of the festival doings, thus describes one of
the concerts :

For the vocal music of this concert four foreign singei a
had been engaged, and if the Festival Committee are ni t
satisfied with the exhibition they enjoyed of good mils c
thrown away upon inferior artists, simply because they cvn
clap " Herr," or " Signor," or " Mademoiselle " belt
their names, they are perfect gluttons in estravagam..l
Signor Belletti ( who sang Mozart's " Non piu andrai ")
was the best or the four, but he is not fit to sing on the
same day with Mr. Weiss. Signor Beneventano, a basto
profundo with no notion of light and sbaue, made a coil.
plete buffo song of one of Verdi's sentimental ballads.
Herr Reichardt, a German tenor, who came to us descrils d
by a London critic as having a voice "exceedingly sweet
and sympathetic, and with great delicacy and retinemei.t
in his style of singing," may go back to London with the
Yorkshire verdict that he has lost his voice and eke his
ears, as he was straining at notes all night which were
about half a note below pitch. Last, and least, comes
Mlle. Piccolomini, of whom, because she is a lady and Ls
in her some promise of future excellence, and is moreover
an actress and therefore thoroughly out of her element in
St. George's-hall, it behoves the critic to speak the truth
with more kindness. She is young, impassioned, full of
animation, petite, of pleasing manners and conversational
grimaces•, out of her singing it will be sufficient to say
that no English singer with such imperfect intonation and
such an unfinished voice would have been allowed to quit
the orchestra without a signal evidence of popular indig•
nation. By her inimitable acting, which we hope will be
unimitated in the concert-room, she however succeeded in
hiding the deficiencies of her voice, and in Donizetti's duct
from Don Pasquale, " Pronta io son," she elicited by this
means an encore. Unfortunately for the honour of true
foreign artists Mme. Alboni was affected with a severe
hoarseness, and was scarcely able to do more than one-
third of the music allotted her. Mme. Viardut Garcia, also/
had but one song in the programme, the old-fashioned yet
in its way delightful bravura by Graun, " Mi paventi," in
the continual vocal divisions of which she exhibited the
finished voice of a great singer. The dearth of musical
ability in the foreign singers was, however, a boon to Mme.
Weiss. As compared w,th a Sunderland in sacred music,
and with a Novello in operatic, Mme. Weiss must be con.
tent to be accounted of second rate, but when contrasted
with such a singer as Mlle. Piccolomini, her singing of
Weber's hackneyed scene, " Softly sighs," seemed almost
of the very highest order.

It is generally understood that the guarantee fund
will have to make good the deficiencies in the receipts
to cover the outlay. This result is not to the credit
of Yorkshire generally, nor to Bradford particularly.
The managing committee deserved better of the
musical public. Even if the tariff had been injudi-
ciously drawn up, the sliding scale was still sufficient
to have met the means of all those who from love of
tutpic, or from nationality, really desired to support
such a grand undertaking. The charges for the
prices of admission, it is to be feared, were made the
pretext for the concealment of meanness iu many
instance, and for covering the excuses of those
numerous cavillers whose chief delight is in finding

SEPT. 6, 1856.

fault. The noble hall newly decorated, th i orchestra
remodelled, and the organ increased in size, were a
merely preliminary outlay, without reference to the
enormous expenditure in the organisation of the
festival. And without fee or reward the chairman
(Mr. S. Smith) and committee gave their time and
trouble for months to secure a brilliant execution.
In this they have fully succeeded, and no amount of
detraction can deprive them of the grateful reminis-
cences of those amateurs who are free from local
prejudices and dislikes. It is given out gravely that
one reason of the deficit is to be found in the absence
of Mrs. Sunderlend, a local soprano, who has been
heard at Exeter hall, more distinguished by a fine
voice than for her polished style. Pages and pages
have been published of a controversy touching the
omission of the lady's name from the last part of
The Messiah, because the abbreviated version was
used. And, assuming that the compensation offered
to Mrs. Sunderland's artistic dignity by giving her
the lead in Frida3's miscellaneous selection was not
enough, were the destinies of a great meeting to be
compromised by such miserable cabals? The friends
of the Yorkshire " Queen of Song " have turned an
incident of the most trifling kind to the best specu-
lative account. But the final judgment of the public
will arrive at this,—that if the committee hastily took
out Mrs. Sunderland's name, without considering the
artistic temperament, which is of the volcanic kind,
Mrs. Sunderland's susceptibility might have been
softened by her taking the noblest revenge, namely,
by having sung the day after The Messiah one of her
most successful airs, given in the true Yorkshire
tongue, which a local critic assures us " is a manlier,
and more open language than the mixed London
dialect," a discovery which, if generally adopted,
must lead to the compilation of a new dictionary.
The Bradford Musical Festival will remain one of
the greatest of musical meetings.

MUSIC AT RIRMINGHAM.—rhe opening of a new
music-hall at Birmingham has been celebrated by
the performance of Handel's Messiah and Mendels
solin's Elijah, last Wednesday and Thursday, and
by two evening concerts on the same days. The
hall has been erected by a company, the committee
of which emphatically deny the intention of inflict-
ing any injury on the great triennial festivals held
in aid of the funds of the General Hospital. This
intention, it is to be hoped, will be rigidly adhered
to, as nothing more suicidal for the fame of Bir-
mingham can be conceived than an organised oppo-
siticn to a charity, one of the first of its class in the
country, and to a music meeting which is of Eu-
ropean interest and importance. The principal
singers for the four performances were M me. Novello,
Mine. Weiss, Mrs. Bull, Miss Dolby, Mr. Simi,
Reeves, Mr. Montem Smith, Mr. Thomas, and Mr.
Weiss. Mr. Simms was the organist, Gray and
Davison having built a new and powerful instrument
for the new hall, the interior of which is more re-
markable than the exterior. Mr. Alfred Mellon was
the conductor, having his well-trained band of the
London Orchestral Union strengthened for the occa-
sion. The chorus was a complete failure.
ROYAL SURREY GARDENS.—The dead calm in
musical London has been relieved this week by the
singing of Alboni at the concerts in the Surrey
Musical Hall, supported by M. and Mme. Gassier,
and Mr. G. Tedder, the tenor.
DEATH OF LINDPAINTNER.--GerMany has lost one
of the best of modern musicians in Lindpaintner, the
chapel-master to the King of Wurtemburg, and
director of the well-organised opera-house in Stutt•
gardt. Lindpaintner was the composer of several
operas, symphonies, overtures. His name will be
remembered in England chiefly by the " Standard
Bearer," so admirably sung by Piachek. Lindpaint•
ner conductei Dr. Wylde's New Philharmonic Con-
certs at Exeter-hall, after the secession 'f Berlioz.
The rumour that the future Royal Italian Opera
House would occupy the site of the proposed St.
James's Hall is contradicted.