The Express.
London, England, 1847-03-20 00:00:00

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SACRED HARMONIC SOClETY.—Halldel'a "Be!.
shamar" was performed, for the first time, at Exeter-hall,
last evening. This oratorio was first performed in 1744.
The poem is believed to have been written by Charles Jen-
pens, Eq., of Oopsall-hall, in Leicester, the ancestor of the
present Earl Howe, a gentleman of large fortune, and dis-
tinguished for his taste and acquirements in literature. He
was the intimate friend of Handel, and assisted him in the
compilation of scriptural texts which form the words
of " The Messiah." The poem of " Belshazzar" has con-
' amebic literary merit its dramatic structure is simple
mid coherent, end, in its diction, there is none of the mean
and vulgar dotterel which deforms several of Handel's ora-
tories, particularly " S 1111.011" and " Solomon." As •
asasical work, however, it seems to here been among the
bast successful of Handel's sacred compositions. It does
ant appear, from contemporary records, to have produced any
owe impression in its novelty ; and it has slept for a century
it almost total oblivion. Not only has it never been per-
'firmed entire for at least onebalf of this period (and pro-
: bably much more), but none of its airs or choruses, taken
aenarately, have become stock pieces at concerts, festivals,
and music meetings. The Sacred Harmonic Society have
done well to attempt its revival : it belongs to them to bring
Alward the forgotten works of great masters, in order that
die present generation may have an opportunity to form a
lodgment of their merits. If this judgment is unfavourable,
** society at least have done their duty. It is impossible to
lerrethat a work of such magnitude, composed by Handel
very meridian of, hie powers, san be unworthy of his
genhin; but the experiment of last night is sufficient to
account for the oblivion into which it has fallen ; for cer-
tainly the performance was one of the heaviest we have ever
listened to. The strings of recitatives, many of them con-
sisting of twenty or thirty lines of blank verse, seemed to be
interminable. Their length, indeed, was increased by the
slow and drawling manner in which recitative is almost
always delivered by our English singers; but nothing could
have divested them of the dreary monotony caused by an
incessant repetition of the WWI sing-song passages. The
airs, without exception, are destitute of interest.
They are in Handel's worst stvle—stiff, formal, and
loaded with antiquated divisions. it is in the choruses that
we discern the genius of the mighty muter; though none
of them will bear a comparison with the choruses in the
" Messiah," " Israel in Egypt," " Samson," or " Joshua."
"All empires upon Out depend," however, is a nobly wrought
fugue ; end the chorus of the people watching the receding
waters of the Euphrates, is picturesque and dramatic. The
oratorio was carefully and well performed. The principal
singers—Miss Birch, Miss Hawes, and !dieters. Hansen,
Phillips, and Bodda—exerted themselves to the utmost, and
the choruses were excellently sung. Little effect, however,
was produced on the audience, who showed a coldness not
usual at the concerts in Exeter-hall.