The Press.
London, England, 1858-04-24 00:00:00

USZC.

THE NEW PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY was always a
mysterious body, a shrouded form, a veiled figure,
having members in outward appearance only—so, at
least, many people said. Some, indeed, asserted that,
just as the worshipper who longed to see the face of
his goddess found, when he had chipped away the
veil, only a rough lump of stone, a similar treatment
of the society would disclose nothing more than Dr.
Wylde. These statements may have been, as the
French say, "completely inexact; " we only know
that the veiled figure has just disappeared from its
pedestal, and that. the Doctor now occupies the vacant
place. In short, the society is broken up--disbanded
—dispersed—and " the performances will take place
in future under the title of ' The New Philharmonic
Concerts,' and will be under the sole direction of the
original promoter." The first of these concerts took
place last Monday evening, and, judging from the pro
gramme, we should say that Dr. Wylde is a very
good director. The first part was selected entirely
from Beethoven, and included the overture to
Egmont, the pianoforte concerto in E flat, and the
symphony in C minor; between which were inserted
a duet from The Mount of Olives and an air from
Fidelio. To follow this, a butter second part could
not have been devised than the overture to Der
Freischutz, three lively songs by Rossini, Auher,
and Donizetti, and the overture to Masaniello. The
concert was over some minutes before eleven o'clock,
and could be heard from beginning to end without
fatigue. But the director and "criginal promoter" was
also the conductor, and whoever would occupy this
position ought to possess something beyond the
mere common sense which can put together a good
programme. When a child is taken to a concert
for the first time, he generally asks, "What is that
man with the stick in bis band doing 7" and the usual
answer he gets is, " Beating time, my dear." If
this answer were full and complete, it would matter
little whether the man with the stick in his hand
were Dr. Wylde or any one else ; but a conductor
has something to do besides beating time. He has
to be neither more nor less than the mind and soul
of the orchestra ; he has first to gain a conception
of his author's meaning, and then to make his con-
ception intelligible to every member of the band.
We do not think that these qualities meet in
Dr. Wylde: be has an excellent body of in-
strumentalists under his orders, but he has not the
art of ruling ; they are individually excellent, but
the ensemble is not. There was plenty of vigour ID
the playing, but not a spark of esprit from first to
last. The concerto was played by Miss Arabella
Goddard with her usual quiet confidence and her
usual success. Mme. Castellan and Mme. Bor-
chardt were the vocalists, and met with consider•
able applause; the latter lady was assisted in
Beethoven's duet by Mr. Tennant. The second
concert is to include a selection from( Mozart.

AT Sr. MARTIN'S HALL last Wednesday Mr. Hullah
gave Handel's oratorio of Samson, or rather a selec-
tion, comprising about three fifths of the entire
work. His version varied little from that used by
the Sacred Harmonic Society ; the insertion of the
contralto air, " 0 mirror of our fickle state," and
the omission of the chorus, " To man God's universal
law," being the chief points of difference. Most of
Handel's oratorios are subjected to this sort of cur-
tailment, and it is worth while to notice how little
they suffer from it. It is, doubtless, owing in some
measure to the nothingness of the poems upon
which Handel employed himself, and the utter
meanness of which he seems never to have felt. Of
the two which are selected, and well selected, from
the Scriptures, the Israel in Egypt cannot, it is true,
be mutilated, but The Messiah is rather a collection
of anthems than one connected work—glorious
anthems, indeed, but not very closely related to one
another. Half a dozen may be left out, and gener-
ally are left out, without being much missed; and
almost every piece in the oratorio can be extracted
and sung by itself. Imagine the Elijah with half a
dozen pieces omitted. We have as great a venera-
tion as any one for Handel, but it is absurd to deny
that the dramatic purpose and unity of design
which Mendelssohn introduced into the modern
oratorio are vast improvements upon the old forms
used by Handel. And yet there are some persons
who are accuston.ed to compare the contest of the
Israelite and Philistine worshippers, which occurs in
the second part of the Samson, with the scene upon
Mount Carmel in the Elijah, and to assert the
dramatic superiority of the earlier composer. We
really can hardly discover ground upon which to base
a comparison at all ; the two situations are wholly
different. Mendelssohn has contrasted the calm,
earnest, confident supplication of the prophet with
the bewildered frenzy of the priests of Baal—the
wild prayer that sounds more than half like a
drinking song, as a great contemner of the modern
school once said to us. Both priests and prophet are
asking for the same thing, but the deities who are
invoked do not differ more widely than the prayer.

which are addressed to them. In the other case the
Philistines are holding a festival in honour of Dagon ;
they praise their god with song and dance, and call
upon him to aid them in exterminating the Israelites,
who, crushed and spirit-broken, seek the help of
Jehovah. Why, here is contrast enough in the posi-
tions of the two, a difference of situation so great as
to make the contrast of character almost impossible.
And we must declare our conviction that no such
delineation of character was attempted or dreamt of
by Handel. The song of the Philistines is a bold,
free-hearted, manly strain, very like many other
jubilant choruses from the same pen. There is
nothing particularly debased or idolatrous about it.
Nothing, indeed, can be more beautiful, more
touching, more appropriate, more admirable in every
way, than the psalm of the Israelites, " Hear, Jacob's
God," but then, unfortunately, it is not by Handel,
but merely an adaptation of a six-part chorus from
Carissimi's oratorio of Jephtha. But what shall we
say of the magnificent finale which concludes the
part where the opposing parties sing the praises of
their gods in precisely the same words, and precisely
the same noses, the names only being vat ied ? Alas
for the dramatic character now ! Are the Philistines
suddenly brought to the true faith, or have the
Israelites apostatised ? Surely this sort of indis-
criminate admiration is a poor compliment to a great
man. Had Handel so little genius, was be such a
poor commonplace composer, that we need ascribe
to him qualities that were not his, and applaud
him for successes which he never aimed at? The
part of Samson was undertaken by Mr.
Sims Reeves, who appeared to be suffering from
hoarseness, and did not sing with his usual ease and
finish. Miss Fanny Rowland was the Philistine wo-
man; the parts of Delilah and Micah were intrusted
to Miss Banks and Miss Palmer; and the part of the
Israelitish woman, which includes the brilliant air
" Let the bright seraphim," was sung by Mlle. M.
de Villar. Mr. Thomas was a good, rough, vulgar
Harapha, and the music of Marwah was most
carefully and admirably sung by Mr. Ssntley, who is
gaining rank in his profession every day.