The Express.
London, England, 1856-06-24 00:00:00

PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY.

The Philharmonic Society brought their Neon to
• close lest evening with • conceit of • very remarkable
description. Instead of being cocooned, as meal, of a
*elution of miercleceous sauce, it c--...sts:d entirely of •
single piece—J'er•dise and the Fert, • cantata for solo
voices, choral, and orchestra, by Robert Schusses, per-
formed for the first Vale in London. When Madame Gold-
eche:midi Lind kindly conserved to ring this lotion at one of
the Philharmonic Concerti, this work, of which she
is • warm admirer, and in the patormsoce of
which she hte assisted is ()meshy, was ct.o en
for the emu cn of her eppearaace. The directors
of the srciety, and their able cmductor, Professor
Steredale Bennett, have made great I 'anomie on its pruduc-
tea. I• addition to Madame Go; !ictmidt Lied, wbo
undertook to sing the principal sopraco put, Madams
Weise was engaged as second urges,. Mrs. Le they as c ,c-
-tnPo, Mr. Benson and Mr. Moak. Smith as tenors, and
Mr. Lawler as baritone. A chorus wa■ provided, eighty
ring, and composed of the best cli r.rters the metropolis
can fur•i•h ; there were repeated and careful reheinale;
and the resell was the admirable aril sucecesfel performance
of last night.
&Nit Schasaase (we rued scarcely tell our mituical
seeders) is one of the moot celebrated carvers of the pre-
seat time, though his work. are as yet but little known in
t►is country—a sue of great and original genies, destined,
as we. g Ily believe tin Germany, to reach the highest
honour* of his art, when hit
lenity worse than death—total sod (we fear) hopeless
mental alienation, • mistortone the more deplorable that he
has 'calmly as yet attained middle age, and was endeared to
W wbo knew him by his ex:Aleut and smith!. qualities. In
regard to hi. character as an artist then is direnity of opinion
among those who have had the means oljudgirg. Hie general
merit and his great it fiasco on tha pretest state of German
art are not dispelled ; but while he is almost idolised by
mine, WINS charge him with extrasagarce, oßecurity, and
• duiregaid of these principle. of the grand and the bean-
Uhl in music which have been established by the greet
ohmic mestere. For each opinion there is probably some
fosadatine, and the lust medium any lic same where be-
twain them Oar own knowledge of his musk is but
limited; it has bees derived from his smaller composition.,
chiefly instremestal; and of the /mar work perforated last
sight we are not competent on so short an arqutiatance to
gamer • dogmatic judgment. But, tram the impel-
Men On ourselves, a. well as the evident effect on •
highly critical audience, we believe Paradise and the Peri
to be a week of great genies and power, of which the
health. will develop theauelves more and more as it is
oftener heard and bettor undentcod. Much of the dif-
bosky which meat be felt in compreheonieg and *ppm.
editing it on • first bearing arias, we think, from the great
elaboration and intricacy of the scare. There is inch a
profusion of skate and complicated details that the ear is
peptized, and lads it difficult to trace the simple
form through the multitude of orchestr►l combination.
and ornameote in which it is enveloped. In this
respect S:hsmsna'e monde ',minds us of those
Ira-Rapluelits picture In which every object is delieeated
with the laborious distinctusie of Meister. painting, or of
the eke Omer, and curved work of a 8144 Gothic edifies*.
Bet this mtheteser of detail, in the music of Schema
lad other modern masters, which at first seems • fault, may
afterwards appear a beauty. When the ear is occe accu.
tomed to it, it may be feud that it is no longer perplexing,
let only heightens the richew of the colouring witboat
*bemiring the form. That this will be the case with the
mask of Paradise and the Peri we me little reason to doubt.
The teat of this catenate k • German version of the
sweetest of ell the poems of Moon, executed with great
spirit and with such flJelitg that the original and the version
ceereepood in almost every line, not only in the sense bat
the rhythm; so that Mr. Bartholomew, in now adapting
the poem to Schnenann's music (which he has done wit►
asemamate skill), has been enabled to preserve, with won-
derfully small alteration., the very language of Moore him-
self; and the. the Rimini' libretto cow printed (with
Messrs. Longraaa's permission) by the Philharmonic So-
ciety has all the gra. and beauty of the original poem.
The music, following the constitution of the poem, is
partly narrative sad descriptive, partly dramatic, and, Is
the moil form of works of this dean, consists of airs, 00101.
/escorted pieces, sad choruee. It is divided into three parts,
eon renaming as &flusters of the "Nymph of •fair bet
erring hoe" in her attempts to tad such an offering as will
open to her the gates of Paradise—the last drop of blood
from the heart of • youthful hero, slain in fighting for the
freedom of his country; the maiden's dying breath wbo has
shared her lover'. death from pestilence; and lastly, the
Mar etre* penitence from the eye of a man hardened is
sic—the offering which, as the most precious of all, ie
•wpted by H . The dramatic form is partially par
mewed in the chstribetios of the voices. Tbe principal
soprano sustain the character of the Peri throeglimat ;
the port of the angel who watches at the gate of
Paradise is mug by the contralto ; while the su-
nrise and descriptive passages are given to the
Oilier solo TACOS (chilly the teem), and the chorus.
The gut of the Peri is beautiful from beginning to ends
and was ezquieitely performed by Madame Goldschmidt.
She threw her whole seal late it, and sang with immense
vocal poorer, and that deep and earnest espreseion which is
her peculiar cba•acteristie. To specify the beauties of her
performance would be to enumerate, every air which she
seas. Ent we matt mein the accents of hopelem
anguish with width she littered the wcrds, "Re-
lated! dejected ! " in the fine air in the third
part; sad the way in which, in expressing the
Peri. eraltatioa on het ultimate reception, her Ingsdraws
motes, is the highest pert of the wale, rug through the
rem, above the whole combined sounds of the orchestra
sad chorus. Ail the other solo pare were admirably sum.
The excemively ditanit amain were exerted with is.
markable (learner, and the complex onebestrel tooth&
mostation performed its Wastes task mist excellently. TM
reception of th• pi:foresees:o was highly fairoarabileg
The whole was listened to with the deep •et attention, awl
the principal pussies were warmly applauded.
The messes was wended to noses, even the sate-rem
we fine, letep meetly meted for that purpose. The
Inns aad Plis.c.Aibut, the Piece of Wale., the Prim.
mu Royal, and the Princess Alm were preeent; together
with the Nines of Prune sad Prince Omar of Sweden;
awl in the floral cortege were the Duke and Deemed
Meaner/too, the Duchess of Athol!. the Roe. Miss Comes-
the Hon. Mao Macdonald, the Mimesis at Rose*
be., Earl Spencer, Lord Rivers, Lord George Lawn, sill
weer persons of rank and dietisetion.