The Sun.
London, England, 1852-01-12 00:00:00

the works of the pianistes !to whom we have above al-
laded. Some were profound musicians, each advanced I
the art, and all were composers superior to the acknow-
ledged pianistes of the present day. Honourable excuse
may be pleaded for their inferiority to one who has no
equal, and their defeat can bo acknowledged with a
better grace by their admirers, through a conviction that
the most illustrious composers, even Weber, Spohr, and
Mendelssohn, have not approached the spirit of Beet-
hoven in this form of composition.
The fate of the works of the eminent pianistes invites
U 3 to warn future aspirants against the adoption of all con-
ventialities, popular forms, and mechanical expressions of
taste, that are not founded on true principles of art.
Few artistes, whether poets, painters, or composers,
however illustrious, freely escape the prejudices and
popular mannerism or their age. Among the works of
departed genius, those of Sebastian Bach, Mozart, and
Beethoven, are most free from conventialities; they offer
few or no examples of a style that may be termed old-
fashioned or obsolete; but the operatic works of Handel
are loaded with these imperfections—faults arising from
his attempt to conciliate the taste of his fashionable
audience. So damnatory have they proved, that the
name of the mighty master, though encircled by a halo
almost sacred, has not been able to redeem these works
from contemptuous and merited neglect.
Art in every degree, simple and combined, and all
branches of industrial product, when remotely allied
with art, are obnoxious to this failing. Nu furniture
nor manufactured fabric, however ancient, will convey
an impression of obsoleteness if the amount of art in-
volved therein shall have been fitly applied. More
novelty and freshness are felt in a movement from one
of Haydn's quartett's than can be found in any modern
fantasia for the pianoforte. The costume of an ancient
Greek or Roman appears not so much out of fashion as
a dress of last season. The draperies of Phidias or
Titian present a more recent mode than the Court gar-
ments of the present day. The Parthenon is less anti-
quated than most of the costly buildings in Europe of
this century, and an Etruscan tezzs has more newness
than a cup and saucer hot from the manufactories of
China. The ideal or imaginative is the essence of art.
They who possess it, possess it by nature, they who wish
to understand it must study it; for the peculiar powers
and propensities thereof are not to be fully appreciated
upon a superficial acquaintance. Without the divine
spark, as poets call it, none can hope for immortality in
their art. Beethoven possessed it in a degree beyond
that of any other composer. His position among mu-
sician is as high as that of Shakspeare among dramatists.
It may be a question whether of the two individuals, he
were not the more higly endowed. Certainly his works
do not exhibit the faults committed by the immorial
bard, and which have been justified by Schlegel, who
had the moat profound comprehension of hie subject, in
the belief that Shakspere employed there with the view
of painting the actual tone of the society of his day;
that they did not meet with his approbation; on the
contrary, he clearly held them in derision.
It would be instructive and highly interesting to elu-
cidate the affinity of the two sister arts, poetry and
music, by a diligent and metaphysical inquiry into the
various mental conditions and capacities requisite for
the attainment of pre-eminence in either. To such a
remarkable degree do the works of Shakspere and Beet-
hoven manifest identical powers and parallel resources,
that the science, which determines the peculiar functions
of each cerebral organ in the various operations of the
brain, might have been advanced by a comparative exa-
mination of their intellectual organism. Both minds
were imaginative and creative; their idiosyncrasies were
homogeneous. Are the works of Shakspere characterised
by sublimity and pathos, by grandeur and simplicity, by
vastness and minuteness, by description and suggestion,
by philosophy and nature? so are those of Beethoven.
To each of these features, as they occur in the dramas
of Shakspere, can a parallel—drawn by synthesis or
analysis—be offered from one or other of the quartette
of Beethoven—an assimilation, not merely in the inter-
pretation of isolated phrases or passages, but embodied
tu entire movements.

Such gigantic and boundless resources had Beethoven,
that by the employment of four instruments, he presents
images to the mind more stupendous in effect than the
colossal proportions of Handel, when he moves with a
thousand instruments and as many voices. It is rare to
find a oritic who can elevate himself to th© comprehen-
sive contemplation of Beethoven's works; for his com-
positions, from the very depth of purpose displayed in
them, have been especially liable to the misfortune of
being misunderstood. As he advanced in his art his
conceptions became deeper, more vast, ideal,and original.
An opinion became prevalent that ho was a rude and
wild genius, who poured forth at random, and without
aim or object, his unconnected compositions. The diffi-
culty of understanding him rendered it impossible to
perform his works with fidelity. His fame did not
break forth into full glory till after his death. Since
then it has but increased in lustre with the course of
time. Even the rivalrous efforts of both opera houses,
last season, did not yield a true representation of the
Fidelio. Some time must yet elapse ere "a consumma-
tion so devoutly to be wished for," can be accomplished
in this vast and wealthy metropolis. Nor has the Phil-
harmonic Society attained the glory of rendering a per-
fect performance of the " Choral Symphony," the last
and the greatest of these works by the greatest man of
this century. To the minds of some of the members of
the Philharmonic Society, the " Choral Symphony"
presents nothing more than a chaotic confusion of
sounds, rudis indigestaque moles
These obeervattuns have grown to such a length, that
we must deter our analysis of Mr. Silas's work for a
futare number. In the meanwhile, without exposing
ourselves to the lues Bowel/lane, a disease said by
Macaulay to infect those who, in admiration of sense
idol, proffer their praise in such indiscriminate abun-
dance, as Boswell rendered to Johnson, we may con-
, sisteutly aver, that no sonata possessing the same high
promise, and deserving the same claim upon the ottens
lion of connoisseurs and artistes, has issued from the
press since the publication of the sonatas of Beethoven.
We sincerely hope that a composer so young, enriched
with such large acquirements, and gifted with such rare
powers and surpassing abilities, will neither seek nor
shun distinction, and chat his genius may find fame only
as he can meet it in his progress to the highest attain-
ment of his art, for a few such works as this sonata
must bear the name of the composer to a bright im-
mortality. S. K. E.