The Express.
London, England, 1867-08-21 00:00:00

JrIUMG

THE HEREFORD MUSICAL FESTIVAL.
(nom on SPECIAL corantrosima.)

HEREFORD, Tvr.nay.
The morning of the festival ()pencil with bright
and glorious summer weather, the temperature'
agreeable moderated by a severestorm ofrain,thun-
der,and lightning,whichcommenced about 11 o'clock
last night, and continued for seveial hours. At
half-past this morning full choral service was
performed in the cathedral by the united three
choirs of Hereford, Gloucester, and Worcester, the
service of the day being Wesley's in F, and the
" Blessed be Thou, Lord God of Ismel,"by
the▪ lice. Sir F. G. ()useless M.A. , Musical Director.
The lessoti tcere read by the Rev. Canon Evans
and the Hon. and Very Rev. the Dean of Here-
ford. the Litter of whom preached an ex-
celknt sermon with special reference to the
proceedings of the festival week. The text was
taken from the first chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to
Titus. the nth verse—" Unto the pure all things
are pure : but unto them that are iiefiled and un-
believing is nothing pure."
At a quarter past 11 o'clock the doors of the
cathedral acre again opened, and at 12 o'clock the
festival commenced. Mr. G. Townshend Smith,
who has conducted these performances for nearly a
quarter of a century, took his accustomed
position, and the orchestra began the over-1
tnre to The L.cd Judgment, the first and
beat of Spohr's three great oratorios. This great
work, originally produced at Capel in 1826, and
first heard in England at the Norwich festival of
1830, i 9 a production of Spohr's best period, before
his tendency to excessive elaboration of harmonic
treatment had become so marked a mannerism as
it did in many of his later works. The Last Judy-
sand cuntnius two important instrumental move-
ment;, large in design and amply developed—the
commencing overture, a piece of majestic character
and refined beauty, without any resort, however,
to the seier tific forms of contrapuntal writing; and
the symph to the second part of the oratorio,
in which a loeg introductory movement is followed
by some free fugal and imitative writing interspersed
with the effects of modern orchestral climaxes. In
both these pieces the dignity of character, masterly
construction, and splendour of instrumentation
stand in admirable contrast to the sciolism of those
hasty (and sometimes imperfectly trained) com-
posers who shirk, in oratorio and opera, the trying
test of a coherent and well-developed instrumental
prelude. The overture, the fir -t of the two move-
ments just specified, was played with excellent
effect by the capital orchestra assembkd on this
occasion, comprising, as we have already said, many
of the principal members of our opera bands.
This beautiful prelude was followed by the same
composer's setting of Milton's version of the Eighty-
fourth Psalm, composed in 184; on the occasion of
Bpohr's visit to London to direct three concerts of
the Sacred Harmonic Society, at which his compo-
sitiona were performed. The Psalm referred to
was given for the first time at Exeter-hall, at the
concert of July 23, 1847. This composition has all
the melodious beauty of Spohr's best style—that
is of tits best secular style. There are the same ex-
quisite grace and highly polished refinement which
pervade his best operas, Emir, and Asor and
Jcssm.•fa; but, like most of his sacred music (with
the exception of The LastJutlyment), there is little,
if any, of that distinction which should exist be-
tween the sacred and secular styles, in order to
realise truth of expression in either. Purity and
, tenderness and refinement, are generally
grace
hr's characteristics ; but although he is fre-
quently impressive, even dignified, ho seldom ap-
proaches the sublime. He has scarcely written any-
thing more fall of graceful, flowing beauty than the
first chorus of the Psalm referred to, " How lovely
are thy dwellings fair," which is one continued
stream of melodious vocal part-writing, enhanced by
those delicate details of instrumentation of which
Spohr was so consummate a master. The move-
went, however, would rather better have served as
introductory to a serious opera than the pur-
pose to which it is applied. This chorus was
extremely well sung, the voices being bright and
tuneful, and the complex harmonies of Spohr being
rendered with correct intonation. The second
chorus," Happy who in thy house reside, ' is broad,
bold, and majestic in character, instrumented with
that command of the balance of sound in which
Spohr is not surpassed, even by composers of
greater genius. No. 3, quartet, Lord God of
Hosts," is perhaps the least interesting movement
of the Psalm, although containing some clever
writing, with points of imitation. It was smoothly
and delicately sung by Miss Edith Wynne, Madame
Patey Whytock, Mr. Montem Smith, and Mr. Weiss.
No. 4 chorus, after a few introductory bars, con-
sists of some bold fugal writing onaclearly defined,
although not very original subject, fluently written,
but without much variety or originality of treat-
ment—subject and development being very similar
to the fugue in Spohr's psalm for a double choir, in
C, in the set of three such works, op. 85. There is
so much beauty in Spohr's 84th Psalm that it is
surprising it should have been ignored as it has
been since its first performance,although it must be
admitted that those rapid and incessant changes of
harmony in which this composer indulges, some-
times to excess, render the work more fit for per-
formance in a concert-room than in a ecclesiastical
building, where a severer style would be more
appropriate to the locality as well as more
in consonance with the sacredness of the text.
Dr. Wesley's anthem, " Ascribe unto the Lord"
(which followed the psalm of Spohr), is the second
in a collection of cathedral anthems by the lame
composer, published some years since—the piece
referred to having been re-written by Dr. Wesley,
with orchestral accompaniments, expressly for the
last Gloucester festival. This work is in a much
more modern style than that which generally cha-
racterises even recent productions for cathedral
use. With some slight occasional reflections of
Spohr and Mendelssohn—not plagiarisms, but
niece indications of its composer's bias in musical
taste—the anthem contains some masterly writing,
with a coherence and continuity that are very wel-
come after much of the modern English music we
havebeen doomed to hear. Afterafewalternationsof
peasages of choral unison and harmony, the verse
(quartet), "0 Worship the Lord," is conspicuous for
graceful suavity and vocal charm. The chi us be-
ginning " As for the gods of the heathen " con-
tains some clever contrapuntal part writing, inter-
spersed with some effective passages of recitative.
The short " full " movement, As for our God,"
somewhat in the style of a chorale, is a piece of
pure and noble harmony, in the true ecclesiastical
style. The phrase, in the following movement,
" Ye are the blessed of the Lord," has a special
melodic beauty, although some might object to its
being a little too secular in style. This subject,
interspersed with some contrasted effects of solo
voices and chorus, is maintained to the close of a
work which leaves a strong impression that its com-
poser possesses powers which should have been ex-
tended into wider fields than those in which he is
chiefly and favourably known—the high cul-
tivation of organ-playing, and the produc-
tion of many fine cathedral services and
anthems. The anthem performed this morn-
ing, conducted by the composer, was admirably
sung by Mdlle. Tietjens,
i Miss Edith Wynne Miss Julia Elton, and Madame Patey Whytock, and
the combined choristers. The remainder of the
morning's performances consisted of Handers
Israel in Egypt, with Mr. Maccarren's additional
accompaniments, of which we spoke on the occa-
sion of their performance with that oratorio at the
Norwich Festival of last year. A rehearing con-
firms our impression of the great practical skill and
knowledge of orchestral effect evinced by Mr. Mac-
farren, with an occasional unnecesaary Interference
with the original score of Handel—the task which
Mr. Madarren has accomplished being one from
which Mendelssohn altogether shrank. Men-
delsaohn's admirable organ part, composed
for use where no additional wind instru-
ments are obtainable, was, wisely, not
used on this occasion as it was at Norwich, with
the added wind instruments it was intended
to represent. At the present performance,
an organ part, specially written by Mr.
Madarren for the occasion, was performed
by Mr. Done, organist of Worcester Cathedral.