The Press.
London, England, 1858-06-12 00:00:00

THE PRESS, JUNE 12,1858.

more in tune, and (in that case) a little louder and
more distinctly, we should feel far greater pleasure
in listening to him. On the whole, it cannot be
denied that Mr. Lutnley is entitled to the thanks of
the musical community for having introduced to their
notice this almost unknown (in England) work of a
favourite master.

THE FIFTH CONCERT OF THE VOCAL ASsoCIATION,
which took place at St. James's-hall last, Wednesday
evening, was chiefly remarkable fur the playing of
Herr Joachim and Herr Rubinstein. This is rather
a strange thing to be said of a society calling itself
by such a name ; but no one who was present at the
concert will, we imagine, deny it to be true. No
doubt wherever Joachim may appear he must take a
foremost place; and Rubinstein, whatever may be
thought of him as a composer, is unquestionably a
pianist of great ability ; nevertheless, we do not allow
these facts to clear the Vocal Association from all
blame. The choral music was neither well selected nor
well executed. The fact is, no society of any kind
can prosper unless the management is placed in
businesslike hands ; it has been evident from the
beginning that there was some great foiling in this
respect, but the utter confusion of this last concert
ought not to be passed over without remark.
Scarcely a piece in the programme was taken in the
order in which it was set down, several were omitted
altogether, and others inserted. The advertisement
announced Bach's sonata for pianoforte and violin,
hut in the hook of words we found Bach altered to
Beethoven ; and then a notice was circulated in the
hall to the effect that Schubert's " Rondo Brilliant"
would be played instead of either. It is true that in
regard to these annoyances the indulgence of the
audience was " most respectfully solicited ;" but no
excuse whatever was put forward. We cannot help
suspecting that similar mismanagement and careless-
ness in the conduct of rehearsals and meetings for
practice may have prevented the Association from
attaining greater efficiency and taking higher rank
than it has yet reached, or at present seems likely
to reach. The principal vocalists were Mme. Ruders-
' dorff, Mme. Sherrington Lemmens, Miss Messent,
and Miss Dolby; the clarionet accompaniments of
Mozart's " Parte, ma to ben mio " and Spohr's
" The Bird and the Maiden " were played by Mr.
Lazarus. Schubert's " Rondo Brilliant " for piano
and violin was but a poor substitute for Bach's
concerto ; it served well enough to display the
mechanical skill of the two performers, but in itself
it is of little value. Herr Rubinstein, besides taking
part in this, played two of his own compositions, a
"Valle de concert," and something entitled " No. 7
from Kememnoi Ostrou," the interpretation of which
we must leave to better linguists than ourselves. It
is rather hard upon English concert-goers to expect
them to be up in Russian. For ourselves, we must
confess Herr Rubinstein's compositions to be as
unintelligible to us as their titles ; if they be music
at all, they must certainly be " music of the future ;"
at least in the present they will find, we fear, but few
admirers. Herr Joachim is one of those great artists
who are entirely independent of criticism ; his supe-
riority is felt by all ; all the critics in London could
neither add anything to his reputation nor take any-
thing away. His mechanical skill would be enough
in itself to give him a high position among violinists ;
but this, wonderful as it is, is entirely subordinate to
the rare mental power by which he seems to animate
every composer's works with the very spirit which
produced them. While listening to "Le Songe du
Diable," one was almost inclined to doubt if in all
these years any real progress had been made in
music, such life did he give to the grand old sonata
of Tartini.

,arts
BRITISH INSTITUTION.

THERE IS rather a strange contrast between the
crowds that fill the rooms of the Royal Academy
and the few persons that are to be found at the
exhibition of the works of ancient masters in Pall-
mall. On first thoughts we might be rather sur-
prised at this sign of the present state of public
taste ; after all the discussion there has been of late
about Pre Raffaelites and Post-Raffaelites, about
this school and that, one master and another, we
might have expected something different. But if we
begin to consider of what kind of people the crowds
in Trafalgar-square are composed, we shall not
wonder much at their absence from the British
Institution. If we recall for a moment the remarks
and 'criticisms which we hear at the annual exhibi-
tions from most of the people who talk, we shall not
suppose them capable of deriving either much
pleasure or much benefit from looking at the old
painters ; and for our own convenience, both in hotly
and mind, we shall be much better pleased with their
room than their company. Yet when we talk of the
state and progress of art we ought not to lose sight
of this fact. We believe that those very numerous

563

persons who go perhaps once in a year to the
National Gallery, and have no objection to see old
paintings for nothing, but no fancy at all for paying
a shilling a piece at the British Institution, do
really find great pleasure in their visits to the
Academy and the Watercolour Society. Some
people look upon these things as mere matters of
fashion. This is the reason which is to account for
all tastes : everybody goes because everybody else
goes. We will allow fashion to bring some people,
but not the majority by any means. We do not
see these crowds of people going their rounds as if
.it were an unpleasant duty; their manner, their
comments, and exclamations evince plenty of in-
terest, if no great discrimination. We thoroughly
believe that they do get a great deal of real and very
innocent and proper enjoyment, and in most in
stances prefer the better pictures to the worse. But
we need not watch them very closely to observe that
it is generally the subject of the picture which they
look at and pass judgment upon rather than the pic •
ture itself, and it is probably this which must explain
in a great measure their preference for modern

works. Living artists have the power of pleasing
public taste by the choice of such subjects as are
popular at the time. The old masters in the same
way painted for the public of their day, but for those
only in the future whose ideas and tastes extend
somewhat beyond the narrow space of time and the
little range of circumstances in which they live. In
fact, we are inclined to turn the charge of fashion
the other way : people are honest enough when they
look at Leslie instead of Lionardo da Vinci, but they
are not honest when they say the old master is
greater, of course, than the modern ; in the bottom
of their hearts they do not think so. We do not
want people to proless admiration which they do not
feel, or to look at great pictures if they do not like
them ; but let us remember these things when we
talk of popularity and public opinion, and let painters
who are the " lions of the season " remember that
while their works are mobbed at the Academy,
Titians and Giorgiones are hanging neglected at the
other end of the street.
In the collection of this year there are no less than
six pictures bearing the name of Lionardo da Vinci,
and among them is Lord Ashburton's beautiful group
of the Infant Saviour and St. John playing with a
lamb. The Royal Academy sends the celebrated
copy of "The Last Supper," by Marco D'Oggioni,
which has recently been cleaned with great care and
success ; and two of the original designs in chalk,
for portions of the same picture, are contributed by
Colonel North. It is very interesting to compare these
with what we know of the finished picture ; the sketch
for the head of the Saviour differs entirely from that
which we find in the copy, and has all the character of
a first idea. The expression 'is one of simple sad-
ness, and the strange complication of feelings which
Lionardo appears to have afterwards attempted to
depict, is altogether absent. The other is a half-
length of one of the Apostles, and its close corre-
spondence with the oil painting speaks much for the
correctness of D'Oggioni's copy. Near these hangs
one of Titian's magnificent portraits of Charles V.;
and at the other end of the room is the well-known
picture of Giorgione, which Byron mentioned as the
portraits of the painter's son, his wife, and himself.
Giorgione, it is generally understood, had neither wife
nor son, and the figures are called in the catalogue
his mistress and pupil. If there be any truth in the
tradition that the artist died of a broken heart, in
consequence of the faithlessness of this mistress and
this pupil, we may please ourselves with believing
that we have here the portraits of all three ; but it
is hard to reconcile the appearance of the figure
which should stand for the painter with the descrip-
tion of the tall and stately figure which gave
him his nickname of Giorgione. There is
a fine portrait by Tintoretto, and some grace-
ful specimens of Murillo, also several very in-
teresting pictures by Filippo Lippi, Benozzo Gozzoli,
and others of the early Italian painters. The names
of Correggio, Fra Bartolomeo, Dominichino, Guido,
and the Carracci, are to be found in the catalogue,
but of these artists the present collection contains no
very remarkable examples. In the Flemish school
we find several pictures by Cuyp, Berghem, Hob-
bima, Teniers, Snyders, and Vandyck ; two fine
portraits by Rembrandt, and the very curious picture
of " Tobias and the Angel," contributed by Earl
Howe. Claude, Poussin, and Salvator Rosa are not
wanting, and there is the fine head of a priest by Van
Eyck, which has been taken for a portrait. of Thomas
a Becket. Among the English painters there are
four landscapes of Gainsborough's, three of Wilson's,
and one of Turner's in his early sty le ; ten pie
turets OVA* Joshua Reynolds, among which the por •
traits of Wily O'Brien, the Duchess of Gloucester,
Miss Cholnioettfelby, the Earl of Westmorland, Lady
Beaumont, the Marquis of Granby, and Admiral
Keppel are most conspicuous. The Queen sends
Zoffany's two curious pictures of George 111. and his
family. There is an interesting portrait by old Isaac
Oliver, and one or two spteimens of Jiluefuld cud