The Express.
London, England, 1867-08-28 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVNNING, AUGUST 28, 1867.

inUitt.

THE BIRMINGHAM MUSICAL FISTIVA.L.
(nos one anew, 001111/SPOIDENT.)
BIRMINGHAM, TUESDAY.
11$1 festival has opened with weather as bright
ane genial as that which prevailed during the
Hereford music-meeting last week, and with every
prospect of the same continuance. At half-past
ten, an hour before the time of commencement,
the doors of the Town-hall were thrown open, by
whici judicious proceeding, and the excellent ar-
rangements made for the approach and admission
of a large audience, all confusion and inconvenient
crowding were avoided. Elijah has, with a recent
exception, generally been chosen for the com-
mencement of the Birmingham festival perform-
ances ; and most appropriately, since this oratorio
will Always be associated with the name of the
town, and its great music-meeting, at which it was
produced exactly twenty-one years since.
In his treatment of Elijah Mendelssohn has in-
fused more of the picturesque and dramatic ele-
ment, more of intense human sentiment and
imtiiillse than are to be found even in his
ISt. >Paul, in which there is more reflection
of the severer style of the older masters, Bach and '
Handel. He has not, perhaps, reached the vastness
and sublimity of Handel in great choral effects ;
t but, on the other hand, neither St. Paul nor
Elijah contains any admixture of those thoroughly
secular and conventional strains which, in some of
the songs of Handel's oratorios, are undistinguish-
able from the bravura sirs and exhibition pieces
written for the individual display of stage vocalists
of that time. There never lived a musician of
more thorough purity, or possessed of more ele-
vated views of his art mission, especially when
applied to sacred purposes, than Mendelssolui ; and
both his St. Paul and his Elijah, and other
of his smaller religious pieces, will ever
remain models of devotional feeling embodied
'in music, the occasional picturesque, and (so
to speak, for want of a better term) dramatic writ-
ing in which is quite distinct from the style which
the same great master would have adopted for stage
situations.

At half-put eleven Mr. Costa took up the place
which he has been accustomed to occupy, as con-
ductor of the past six Birmingham festivals—his
appearance being received with general and earnest
applause. The national anthem was then sung—
first being played through by the orchestra, then
a verse sung by the sopranos of the chorus accom-
panied by the organ, a second verse being assigned
to the contraltos and altos with a portion of the
orchestra, the conclusion being given by the full
band and chorus. After the short introductory
prologue, "As God the Lord" (declaimed
by Mr. Weiss), the overture was played
Iby the splendid orchestra numbering 140, and
including most of the best players of the London
I opera-houses. This masterly prelude (in which
the form of the fugue is wielded with a facility
equal to that of the great contrapuntists of old,
combined with the elaborations of modern orches-
tral effects) was, of course, admirably played. The
follo/ing chorus, " Help, Lord," with that ex-
quisite phrase, " The harvest now is over " (in
'which the suavity of modern melody is allied to
'sublime aspiration), was sung with great precision
and excellent light and shade by the fine chorus
assembled—the three hundred and sixty-three
members of which are, as already pointed out,
almost entirely local choristers. The duet, " Zion
ispreadeth," with its interspersed answering choral
phrases, was given with much refinement by
Mesdames Lemmens-Sherrington and Patey-Why-
Itock. Mr. Sims Reeves, who was announced for
the tenor solos, not appearing until the second part,
I the recitative and air " If with all your hearts"
was sung by Mr. Cummings, who gave it with
great expression. The beautiful double
quartet, " For he shall give his angels,"
was led with excellent effect by Madame
Lemmens•Sherrington, well supported by Mrs.
Sutton, Madame Patey-Whytock, Madame Sainton-
Dolby, Mr. Cummings, Messrs. Mason, Briggs,
and Smythson. The fine scene in which the
widow appeals to Elijah for succour for her dying
son, was well declaimed by Madame Sherrington
and Mr. Weiss. The following chorus, " Blessed
are the men," with its exquisitely vocal phrases
and undercurrent of figurative stringed instru-
ment passages, was admirably given by both
orchestra and chorus, as was the following
picturesque chorus, " Baal, we cry to thee," with
the admirable effect of the responsive phrases and

the masterly use of the brass instruments. The
succeeding highly-coloured and elaborate choral
movements too, sung by the priests of Baal, with
the rich orchestral effects in the accompani-
ments, were given with admirable pre-
; cision. Elijah's airs, " Draw near, all ye
people," and " Is not His word," and so indeed
all the bass solos of the oratorio, were sung with
that energy and earnestness which Mr. Weiss in-
variably infuses into this music. We must
I pass over the solemn quartet, " Cast thy
burden," with its chorale-like phrases (sung
with much religious feeling by Mesdames
Lemmena-Sherrington, Sainton-Dolby, Mr. Cum-
mings, and Mr. Weiss—as well as the arioso,
" Woe unto them " (expressively given by
Madame Patey-Whytock), and come to the con-
cluding chorus of the first part, " Thanks be to
God." This glorious piece of jubilant sublimity,
its prolonged strains of religious exultation ; with
those marvellous and original harmonic transitions
occurring twice at the words "But the Lord is
above them"—such an effect as was produced by
this movement, performed as it was to-day, we
have seldom heard. Often as the oratorio has
been given at Birmingham, nothing could ever have
surpassed the splendour of this particular effort, nor
indeed is it possible to imagine anything beyond
it as within the possibility of human execution.
The effect produced was profound and universal.
In the second part the soprano solos were assigned
to Mdlle. Titiens (as they were in the perform-
ance of the oratorio at the recent Hereford fes-
tival). It is needless again to dwell on this excel-
lent artist's admirable delivery of " Hear ye,
Israel," as of the incidental recitatives; her per-
formance displaying her usual high qualities of
voice and style. Mr. Reeves, too, has so frequently
sung the music of Elijah that it is only requisite to
say that he gave the several recitatives, and es-
pecially the air " Then shall the righteous," with
true fervour and elevation of style. The beautiful
trio of angels, " Lift thine eyes," was sung as it
could not fail to be by such artists as Mdlle.
Titiens, and Mesdames Patey-Whytock and Saba-
ton Dolby—but it produces a brighter effect