The Express.
London, England, 1858-09-11 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 11, 1858.

MUSIC.

LEEDS MUSICAL FESTIVAL.
LEEDS, FRIDAY.
The concert of last evening, though it did not
present any single object of interest so remarkable
as Bennett's May Queen, yet was on the whole of
en attractive character; and accordingly it did
attract an immense assemblage. It had, however,
the usual fault of inordinate length; and, as the
heat was excessive, I should imagine, judging from
my own sensations, that the audience must have
been exhausted before the end of the performance.
I heard persons near me complaining of insufficient
ventilation ; but, as far as I have been able to learn,
there was no fault to be found on that score, the
ventilation of the hall being very carefully provided
for. But public rooms strongly lighted with gas
will become hot and suffocating when crowded
with people, in spite of all that can be done te
prevent it. The only remedy is to make
our public entertainments of a moderate length.
I em very sure that last night there were very lbw
persons in the hall who did not feel that they had
been too long there. Everybody wishes that the
end were COMO, and hurries out, delighted to get
into the fresh air. People stay till the end because
others stay, or perhaps because they wait for some
particular part of the entertainment in which they
are especially interested. Bo they stay on, in spite
of fatigue and suffering, though they would rather
be away. Why not, then, put an end to a practice
which is universally felt to be a nuisance? Why
waist in sitting for four hours at a: time in a
crowded theatre or concert-room, tormented with
heat, and poisoned with breathing a tainted atmos-
phere, instead of abridging our entertainments to the
rational dimension, usual on the Continent ? They
would be infinitely pleasanter and much less un-
wholesome.

Last night's concert contained nothing with
which persona accustomed to the musical entertain-
ments of the metropolis are not well acquainted.
But, generally speaking, they were things of intrinsic
excellence, and not too much hackneyed. Indeed,
the programme exhibited so much taste and judg-
ment that it required nothing but curtailment to
make an unexceptionable entertainment. The ad-
mirable orchestra was well employed in play-
ing the overture to the Zakberftiits, Menciels-
sohn's ;Scotch Symphony, Bash's ourtare in D,
and the overture to Oberon. Miss Arabella God-
dard played Sterndale Bennett's Caprice in E major
with orchestral accompaniments, and a fantasia of
Thalberg. Why Bennett has called his charming
work a caprice it is difficult to understand, for it
is a concerto in one movement, most re-
gularly constructed, symmetrical in form, and
perfectly free from the flightiness which
the word " caprice," aa a musical term, is
used to designate. The fair young pianist played
it exquisitely, and was rapturously applauded.
Signor Vialetti sang the famous aria, "La Calunnia,"
from the Barbieri, with good success, though it is
not well suited to the concert-room, Pioookenini,

when she came forward to siaq Turin's little air,
Vottrai, carino," from DOll Gio. .i, was received

of unbounded asilprdear, and

the sir was encored so perseveringly that the con-
ductor, though he properly endeavoured to conform
to the " earnest request" of the stewards, was
obliged to yield to the call. Madame Clara
Novella's principal performanoe was Mendelasohn's
Italian scene, " lafelice!" which she sings at
present wherever she goes. It is an elaborate
composition, and affords room for the di
splay
of much vocal power, but it shows little
of the composer's genius. The buffo trio,
Pappataci," sung by Oinglini, Rossi, and Vialetti,
with abundance of Italian buffoonery, made the
audience laugh consumedly, though few of them, I
guess, understood what they were laughing at. The
duet, as pretty as it is amusing, in the Blisir
d' Amore, between Adina and Doctor Duleamars,
was sung by Pig:l3lomila and Roost and was another
of the successes of the evening. Several other
favourite things were sung by the Italian per-
formers ; and indeed the concert was chiefly Italian.
Of the English vocal pieces by far the beg was
Spofforth's choral glee, "Come, bounteous May,"
sung in perfection by the admirable Yorkshire
choristers, and rapturously applauded. Why have
we not had some of the great old madrigals, at a
time when there was an opportunity of having
them sung so beautifully ? For the Yorkshire
choras-singers have those glorious things by heart.
The other English pieces were two or three trivial
ballads, sang by Sims Reeves, Miss Dolby, and Weiss
—thinri which these singers seem to carry in their
travelling budget, and produce wherever they go.
But the concert, taken as a whole, was unquestion-
ably a good one, and did honour to the Festival
Committee.

The performances of this morning consisted of
the first two parts of 77te Seasons, followed by
Israel in Bgypt. The Seasons afforded a delightful
treat—so dehghtfal, that I felt grieved when " Sum-
mer" was over. It is, indeed, a pity to break a
great work of this kind into halves—when given
at all it ought te be given entire; and moreover by
not giving the " Autumn" and " Winter," the moot
charming, as well as the most powerful portions of
the work are left out ; so that, if we were to have
only one-half of the work, the second half would
have been better than the first. The Seaton:
is not an oratorio in the proper sense of the term,
though usually so called. It is a descriptive cantata,
in the same manner as Thomson's " Seasons " (of
which, indeed, it is a musical version) is a deacrip-
tire poem. It is a glowing and-beautiful picture of
rural life in all the seasons of the year sentiments
of devotion flowing naturally out of the subject, but
not occupying so much of the work as to entitle it to
be called Sacred. Its tone is bright and cheerful,
gay, and even occasionally comic. It is redolent of
the freshness of the woods and the fields ; and it
shows that though its illustrious author was a
septuagenarian when he wrote this, his wan truly a
green old age. The parts of it given to-day were
unexceptionably performed. The overture, which,
according to the composer's explanation, "expresses
the passage from winter to spring," is almost wholly
occupied in describing the stormy bleats of
winter, with only a few faint indications
of the gentle airs of the vernal season ;
and the same thing continues to be the case with the
introductory recitative and air; a thing which gave
occasion to the Vienna critics to say that Haydn had
introduced two winters into his year. In the first
eborns, however, "Come, gentle spring!" spring
does come in all her freshness and beauty :
it is a chorus " full of sweet airs, which
give delight and hurt not" and nothing
could be more pleasing than the lightness and
grace with which the admirable choristers sang.
Mr. Weiss sang the air, " With joy the impatient
husbandman," in the light, cheerful style which be-
longs to it, and its beauty was enhanced by the ex-
quisite orchestral accompaniment, which is the
andante movement or the celebrated "Surprise°
symphony. The trio and chorus, "Be pro-
pitious, courteous Heaven," one of those
passages in which religions feeling is graos-
folly introduced, was finely sung by Madame
Weiss, Mr. Sims Reaves, and Mr. Winn; and the
full and rich, but soft harmony of the accompanying
Chorus was most grateful both to the ear and the
feelings. The superb duet, "Spring her lovely
charms unfolding, was superbly sung by Clara
Novell° and Sims Reeves, whops voices mingled
sweetly with the chorus. The beauty of these
chino-singers is that, with all their strength, they
are never overpowering. Such is their tact, that
they always know when to put forth their forth and

when to subdue it; and I have never once heard
them drown or weaken the effect of a solo voice
which they were accompanying. The trio—this
work is full of fine trios—" From whose abundant
stores," which is a counterpart of the beautiful trio,
" On thee each living soul awaits" in The Creation,
was smog with great feeling and delicacy by Madame
Clara Morello, Mr. Sims Reeves, and Mr. Winn ;
and the grand and simple chorus, " God of light !"
terminated the part magnificently.
In the " Summer" the most remarkable passages
were the recitative and air, " The crested harbinger
of day," sung by Mr. Bentley; the trio and chorus,
" Behold, on high he mounts," descriptive of sunrise,
sung by Mrs. Sunderland, Mr. Wilbye Cooper, and
Mr. Santley—(Mrs. Sunderland, I may observe in '
paring, is a Yorkshire singer of great merit and pro-
vincid reputation,worthy de place in the beet London
orchestras); the charming recitative and air, " 0
weloome now, ye groves and bowers," sung by Clara
Novello; the chorus, descriptive of a thunderstorm;
and the lovely trio and chorus, " Now cease the con-
fide of the winds," which describes the lulling of
the storm, and the approach of a still summer
evening—and with which the " Summer" concludes.
Between the first and second parts of the ppr-
fartnanee a solo on the organ was played by Mr.
Henry Smart, who shaluily displayed the powers
of the mighty instrument ; but from au organist of
his high and deserved reputation I expected some-
thing of a higher order. He showed the hand of a
mester, but the pine was altogether too slight, inco-
herent, and fragmentary.
Israel its Egypt, as all the world knows, is a series
of the grandest choruses in existence. They are in-
-1 deed the we pies toffee of the harmonic art. Of
these stupendous efforts of genius, so well known to
all who are ever so little conversant with sacred
music, what can I my but that they were sung as I
have never heard them sung before. The double
choruses, " And the children of Israel sighed," " He
gave them hailstones forrain," " He sent a thick dark-
ness over all the land," "'The horse and his rider,"
and others of scarcely inferior power, were sublime
beyond expression. This oratorio is made up of
choruses, and the solo parts are comparatively
slight; bat they received full effect from Madame
Novello, Mrs. Sunderland, Miss Dolby, Mr. Sims
Reeves, Madame Weiss, and Mr. Wilbye Cooper.
The hall, as usual, was quite full. This evening
there is a miscellaneous concert which promises well,
and the festival terminates to-morrow with the
Messiah. I have not been furnished with amounts
of the receipts of the various performances; but,
from information on which I can rely, I may say
that, after defraying the expenditure, which must
be of a vast amount, the funds of the General Infir-
mary will be benefited to the extent of not lees than
a thousand pounds.