The Express.
London, England, 1859-06-25 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, JUNE 25, 1869.

CRIBTAL PALACZ.

The Handel festival terminated yesterday, as Mr.
Crumml•s would express it, in • "puled blase of triumph."
Everything, in short, combined to mike the bat dare per-
formance the culminating point in the masks' history of the
week. The weather was superb, clear, bright, and runny,
but at the same time cool and pleasant, a gentle gale keeping
the atmosphere in motion during the greeter part of the day.
So firm, in fact, was the weather, that everyone made sure
that her Majesty would come, seeing that • regular " Queen's
day" had been provided for her convenience. Her Majesty
wee maildeatly expected, and the expectation had no doubt
• great deal to do in attracting the vast crowds that filled the
Crystal halls. Than, it wes the last day, and the Oratorio
selected was that one which it was considered would
bring out with the greatest effect the resources of the
grebt choral army. Thousands were amongst the cons-
palsy who, by the time these observations appear
in print, will be fax away on the rail, flying
north, south, east, and west, at the average tab
of thirty miles an bony. The interest, too, bed been a
growing me ever since the first rehear's'. The nineteen and
odd thousand who visited the palace on this day week no
doubt abonisted the wonders they had heard, sad the press
did lb bay r ibiligally reporting the effete of earshimeceselve
perbrnience. All these causes combined acted powestally
on the public curiosity, and the result was the
greatest smenshbege yesterday that had ever bean
collected within walla on • similar occasion. Up
to the very last moment the Queen's presence was
looked for, but when the Prince Consort and the royal
Princesses Alice and Helens, accompanied by the
Count de Flanders, made their appearance, the
hearty cheer they received showed that tho vast
audience were willing to bear their disappoint-
ment with their usual good humour. The Prince was plainly
attired in morning dress, and looked exceedingly well, and
the toilettes of the Princesses exhibited the usual simplicity
aced good taste of the ladles of the royal family. The court
party were received by Sir Joseph Paxton, the Directors, the
Manager, Mr. Rowley; and Kr. Grove., the Secretary, by
whom they wore attended to the royal box. Immediately on
their arrival Mr. Costa gave the signal for the National
Anthem, which was, as usual, magnificently performed,
and the effect of the audience standing, and all with their
faces turned towards the royal box, was certainly the most
striking that was produced in the whole of the day's pro-
ceedings. At every different stage of the journey, the ter-
minus of which was the Crystal Palma, ample evidences
were offered that the house was to bee bumper. The traffic
of London-bridge wee seriously impeded all the morning,
and Use Borough presented a dense mass of vehicles
of all descriptions, standing at what seemed
to be a hopeless dead lock la the large area
that surrounds the recently erected clock tower. The rail.
way swims and platform were continuously crowded, but
the only delay that occurred in the filling of the trains arose
fr tan the occasional jamming of the doors:through the
eagerness of more than ordinarily stout peasengers. Aa
on previous days, the great preponderance of ladies amongst
the company was a noticeable fact, although the ler& of the
cautious peanut would have formed ample material for •
aeries of ride corps. But it was at the Palace entrance that
the presence of an immense throng was most perceptihle. It
appeared that all the town depots had been exhausted of
their stock of tickets on the previous day, and consequently
there was quite a ma on the small bureaux at the estrum*,
which had teen placed there merely to meet the ease of the
taw visitors who might have forgotten to supply themselves
to town. They were obliged very soon to stop, not paying,
but receiving, and consequently no remedy was left but to
pay at the turnstile, an expedient which we saw
adopted in several CUM. Once passed there, how-
ever, the internal arrangements were so complete %
to prevent any further confusion, and the interior filled
with great rapidity. On the previous days, although the de-
clared numbers showed an immense attendance, in looking
down from any of the galleries, one could tee many large
patched, of the well-known yellow chairs without occupants,
but yesterday not • single empty chair could be noticed, in
addition to which, both naves seemed to he filled down to the
end., and the transept galleries up to the roof were all quite
crowded. Nothing was more canspicuoua than the politeness
and facility with which the experienced stewards of the
flamed Harmonic Society placed every one in his or her aeat,
or the obliging ingenuity with which they smoothed over
diffimlties in the aces—and they were many—in which
visitors had lost or forgotten their tickets. As there were
upwards of 200 of these gentlemen stationed at the different
pointa of the audience portion of the building, it would be
kommible to name them all, but we cannot refrain from
particularising those who had charge of the north transept
gallery, which came most knmedistely under our notice. In
this gallery Mr. Davis Sims, Mr. Thomas Mitchell, and Mr.
Peeler, were indefatigable in their attention to the com-
pany, nor did they for • moment allow their enjoy-
ment as experienced musical amateurs to interfere with
the rather onerous duties which they had gratuitously under-
taken. In this gallery lArd °version° and a large party,
the Rev. Mr. Graham (brother to Sir James), Mr. Shaw
Lefever, and other erell•known musical amateur& attended
the festival been the first, and their testimony wee unani-
mous se to the obliging courtesy of the stewards. As every-
thing consented with so great a mush al event es the Handal
Centenary Festival of 1859 la worth recording, snd may be
useful for the prefaces of 1959, we may mention that amongst
the most prevalent topics of convertatito in the interval' of
the music were the wonderful dramatic truth and power of
Mr. Sims Reeve's "Miring, the extraordinary volume end
sweetness of a single female voice in the chorus, the poseessor
of which nobody could find out, and Mr. Harper's trumpet
performanos at the second day's festival. To play the
trumpet wall Is • hereditary gift in Mr. Harper; but of the
company present few had perhapa heard his; father, sod the
completeness with which his brilliant peaformances on hie singu-
larly brilliant and powerful Instrument tilled the immense
bundler, made his solo a general topic of conversation with
the public, while it elicited the unqualified commendation of the
e01:100ilaellre. The effect of a trumpet on • martial and
manly people is extraordinary, and the manner in which
Mr. Harper's not.., as they rang through the building,
moved end eleirified the audience entitles then, to a rocntim
quite distinct and ep art from strict musical cnticism. This
gentleman's performance was in fact one of the most promi-
nent and most commented upon feature in the week's
proceedings.
' Before we proceed to speak of the musicAl programme,
there is one bit of statistical information with which we were
obligintly favoured by Mr. Strang'', the head of the so-
: freshment department, sad which we feel sore • ill not be
without its interest for • public anxious to know every par.
flouter about the great festival, while the antiquary of •
handled years hence will pore over it with unqualified de.
light. We find, then, that during the festival the consuom.
ties of creature comforts was something as follows :-1,600
dozen sandwiches, 1,200 dozen pork pies, 400 dozen Syden-
ham pasties, 800 veal and ham pint, G5O pigeon pies, 480 hams,
3,609 chlckens, 120 balonline of lamb, :240 fore quarters of
lamb, 150 galantine of chicken, 60 reined game pica, 3,062
lobster salads, 3,825 dishes of salmon mayonnaise, 300 score
of lettuce, 40,000 bans at • penny each, 25,000 ditto at two-
pence, 32,219 ices, 2,419 down " beverages," 1,162 ditto al*
and stout, 403 Crystal Palace puddings, 400 jellies, noes
tots of roast and boiled beef, 400 reams, 350 fruit tut",
3,606 quarto of tee, coffee, and chocolate, and 485 tongues.
The consumption of wines, which was 01101111011 P, hat act
bean ascertained when our amount was made up. To con-
sume all these good things there were Freesia—on Saturday,
19,680 prams; Mondsy, 17,109; Wednesday, 17,648 ; and
Friday, about 27,000, being considerably upwards of 30,000
is excess of the numbers attending the previous festival.
It will be an interesting task for the Statistical
Society to analyse and appropriate the various hams
of the above bill of fare and give a fair portion to each of ths
company, and the traveller from New Zealand, when pon-
dering as he sits on the mitred arch of London-bridge over
the probable character of the people who hare passed away,
will be forced to admit that, smoagst other evidences of their
high civilisation, a tolerable profichncy in the Mena of good
living might fairly be reckoned.
kraal is' • Eppl, to which the last day of the Fee-
Festival was devoted, is • series of choruses (iotermingled
with a mall prorortion of solo pieces) descriptive of the
plagues Inflicted by liana upon tke Egyptians dating the

captivity of the breathes. the &Feature of the Israelites
from the had of their oppressor', end the destruction of the
hoot of Pharaoh, by whom they were pursued. These
choruses are of immerses power. Most of them are what is
called "double"—that is to say, the voices are divided Into
two choke, each in four•part harmony, and complete In
Itself ; so that they may be considered as gigantic vocal
&NU, sometimes alienating with and responsive to
each other, and sometimes joining in one great men
of sound. They are, in technical phrase, antiphonal—a form
borrowed from the ecclesiastical service, in which from time
Immemorial the voices have answered to each other from the
opposite sides of the choir, the modern term anthem bring
only a corruption of the ancient word antiphotie. This form
of composition is maculated to produce powerful effects, but
they are in practice imperfectly realised. la order to produce
them the two choirs ought to be so separated that the sound oi
each may be perceived to come from a different quarter. It is
only when this is done that the full effect of a double chorus
as be produced. Let the voices be ever so
numerous the harmony can only be In four
(or occaaionally five) real parts • and a double chorus,
when all the voices join, and reach the ear from the same
direction, however it may look on the pages of the score
differs very little in effect from an ordinary chorus in tbi
usual number of parts. In our performances of Israel is
Egypt the effect of the double chorus is attempted to be pro-
duced by a special di►tribution of the voices in the orchestra;
but it mama impracticable to divide the two choirs so that
the colisetith voices of each shall reach the ear in one distinct
and separate IDYL. Certainly It was one remarkable feature
of the performuce of yesterday, that the Teat
space occupied by the orchestra enabled the fn.
tended effect to be more nearly realised than could
be dons la a more confined locality. How this
was managed in Handers owe day we know not. But it is
certain that the mighty muter placed in his scores stories-
, done conceptions which existed only In his own imagination,
and sin but imperfectly realised at the distance of a hundred
years'

Certainly, of all Handel's works Israel in Egypt is the
one which ear the most in dame° of its age, as it was of
all his works the one which, in hie own day, was the beet sue-
esesfal. Knowing, as the world now knows, its wonderful
gradates, it is sad to learn how coldly It was received sad
bow completely it was neglected. It was through
the reception of brad in Egypt that Haadel
was driven by the Dodders of Dulness "to the
Hibernian shore." It was first perforated on the 4th of
April, 1739 ; a second performance was announced to take
glens on the following week ; and poor Handal wu fain to
intimate that "the oratorio will be shortened and inteended,
with songs." These were Italian wogs, sung by as Italian
pima donna. What it mast have cost Handel to make such
a sacrifice to the frivolity of the age! But even Signora
Fratoesina's Italian soap would not do. A third per
was given, and a fourth we/ announced; but when
the day came it was Intimated that Israel in Egypt
had been advertised by mistake, itAl that Easel would
be given in its stead. Handel lived for twenty year
after this ; and during that long period Israel in Egypt was
performed five times at wide intervals, and apparently with
no greater success. From Handel's day to our own it ap-
pears to have slept in oblivion. It was revived by the Sacred
Harmonic Society in 1839, but with °minion, and interpo-
lations; and it was not till the year 180 that that society
ventured to give the work in its in'egrity. The experiment
succeeded, sad Israel is Egypt has not only become a
"stock-piece" at Exeter-hall, drawing together multitudes
whatever it is performed, but is now indispensable at every
festival and music-meeting of any importance in the Meg-
dom. So great is the admiration with which it
regarded, that many dour amateurs, in their enthusiasm,
are disposed to place it at the head of all Handel's works, not
even excepting The Messiee—an opinion from which we
mast entirely &swat. As a work of ate it Is wesupasuble ;
nothing oat exceed the grandeur of coneeption and profound
ocatrepuntal skill dbplayed in the colossal choruses; nor can
anything be more leepreedve than the sense which they
unmet the Divas power. exhibited in its most awful and
terrible aspects. But the aboogest feelings which this work
can excite are feebleness itself, compered with emotions
awakened by The Messiah.
The performance of a work so often heard and so well
known affords little room for particular remarks; for such
'marks could only be repetitions of what has been
elan said before. It was the greatest performance that
the world has ever heard. It excelled that of 1857 In the
greater strength and man complete oegantsation of the
choral band, the care bestowed on their discipline, and those
mechanical improvements in the orchestra which have so
wonderfully increased the power, clearness, and beady of
the volumes of sound which rolled through the vest
expanse around we, and seemed to all the vary air
we breathed. The solo pieces are aver inconsiderable
portion of so great a work. They form • very small part of
the composer's design, which was to paint the most lawful
pkenomena of Raton by greet coaibinaticas of monad ; and
he really sterna to have bestowed very little care as them.
Indeed, excepting the grand burst of exaltation from
Miriam the Prophetess, " Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath
triumphed gloriously," which Clara Novelle gives with each
wonderfal power, the sirs are far below the level of the
choral portion of the work. But, each as they are, every
luau was done them by the above lady, Miss Dolby, Ma.
dame Loneness Sherrington, Mr. Sims Reeves, Mr. Weiss,
and Signor Bellied.

8o ended the drat centenary commemoration of the death
of Handel. Will the people of England wait another hun-
dred years for a ascend performance of the great mutel'a
music on a scale of similar magnitude P barely not. It Lite
now been proved by experiment that each a gigantic achieve-
ment la practicable ; and unites the experiment is repeated,
and foe the bendit of the present generation, it will hove
boa mile to little purpose.

The excitement of this Handel time, we
(Athenfrum) understand is to be prolonged elsewhere in
London than in the Crystal Palace. The {nommen of the
Handel College not long ago announced as in contemplation,
meditate, as a commendng appeal to the public, a perform-
tate on the largest scale in her Mirjesty's Theatre; to
which it is more then possible that Madame Ooldsohmidt
will lend an aid by singing. They intend also, it to said, to
organise a series of similar petformance in the principal
provincial towns.
CHOIR BENEVOLENT FUND BOCIETT.—Divine
service Ina celebrated on Thursday morning at Westminster
Abbey is aid of the fond. at the above society. A very
numerous congregation assembled to listen to the selections
made from the works of the great composers of English
church music, which were most effectively performed. A
collection In aid of the toads of the society was made at the
door. The design of the society is to secure to the widow.
or orphan. of members a certain sum at death, and also to
de for them and the members such assistance in times of
need or affliction as the funds of the society may permit.
To provide funds annual oontributitho see made by the
organism and lay clerks connected with the cathedral and
collegiate choirs, and as appeal is put forth to the sympathy
of these who are interested in choral worship.