The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-21 00:00:00

Mr, Benedict's Morning Concert,

Yesterday this pre-eminently great musical event
of the season—among all the fashionable concerts of
the year the most conspicuous and the most fashion-
able—duly came off according to announcement. As
any one might very confidently beforehand have pre-
dicted would inevitably be the case—the whole meg•
nificent area of the St. James's Hall was thronged
by a thoroughly appreciative audience—the pick of
the friends and admirers of Mr. Jules Benedict.
The majority of those assemb!ed together yesterday
in evidence of this most accomplished musician's
popularity, the eye recogn!sed at a glance to be of
the gentler scx—the appearance of the interior of
the building, alike on the well filled level of the hall
and in the crowded balconies, resembling parterres,
the flowers of which were represented by—to say
nothing of the faces—gossamer bonnets and light
and delicate coloured toilettes of every hue and
shade of a hue well imaginable. Leaving the hall,
as we did four hours and a half after the con-
cert had commenced, we yet left almost one fifth
of the wonderfully ample programme still to be got
through. It was then close upon she p.m., and
the entertainment had begun punctually, according
to announcement, at half-past one in the afternoon!
The performance, consequently, could hardly by
any possibility, we should imagine, have contrived
be over until past seven o'clock in the evening. The
fact being, that Mr. Benedict was altogether too
bountiful in his arrangements. It was not so much
a Grand , as it was two or three Grand
Co
ncerts rolled one. Never was there a more
conspeld o u
oruCsioenceilllustration of the possibility of giving
too much of a good thing. The mere time occupied
was more than twice too long. People began drop-
ping out at; last by twos and threes, and at length
by dozens and by scores, because in this feast of
sweet sounds they had already long before its close
been fairly surfeited. The mere catalogue of
the names of the performers, alike vocal
and instrumental, was something extraordinary,
something quite exceptional. To enumerate simply
the most conspicuous of the great names on the
list, tLere were Signor Giuglini, Signor Gardoni,
Signor Dello Sedie, Signor Bettiui, Mr. Sims Reeves,
Mr. Santley, Dr. Guez, Herr Fricke, Madlle. Car-
lotta Patti, Madlle. Bettleheim, Madlle. Leschetizki,
Madame Parepa, Madlle. Volpini, Madlle. Trebelii,
and Madame Swinton Dolby. There were two such
violinists as Herr Joachim and Herr Wieniawski,
and those two for once in their lives playing to-
gether a concertant duet of Ludwig Spohr's—a noble
competition ! Each of the two great artists, if not
to the other " a foeman worthy of his steel," cer-
tainly a rival worthy of his horsehair. No less than
five pianists—namely, Mr. Benedict, himself,
with Madame Arabella Goddard, and Mr.
G. A. Osborne, together with two of the youth-
ful pupils of Mr. Benedict, pupils as creditable to
him as Master Frederick Cowen and Miss Eleanor
yrard. A violiucellist, as gifted as Signor Piatti,
who fairly surpassed himself in his exquisite per-

formance of one of his own fantasias on that noble

instrument. Added to these distinguished solo
performers, whether vocalists or instrumentalists,
there were a throng of others, aided by a most
efficient oracstra, and in the choral parts by the
well-drilled members of the Vocal Association. Mr.
Benedict himself assiduously presiding over the
whole of the elaborate arrangements of this
most prodigal of musical entertainments.
Selections from 83T128 of the greatest masters of
the divine art made up thu bulk of the entertain-

ment. Beethoven's glorious overture to Fidvlio led
off the performances, we might almost say without
any er.travagauce of phrase, sumptuously. Next
came one of the loveliest among the many lovely

treats provided for his numerous friends and ad
mirers by Mr Benedict, at this in every way memo-
rable benefit of his—the performance by the Vocal
Association, to the accompaniment of the grand
organ, of Moz wondrously beautiful "Ave verum
.i'hia,iisnteaneninage to it with closed eyes, we
corpus
almost ns anit
smelt
felt spirited away
from that gay haunt of fashion to one of the grand
old Gothic cathedrals upon the continent. Auber's
delicious duet, "Dans les defiles des Montagnes,"
from "Lea Diamants de la Ciuronne," was so charm-
ingly given by the Mademoiselles Georgi that it
was the first encore. A brilliant success has to be
here notified as having been achieved yesterday in
the James's Hall by Madame Harriers-Wippern,
whose dazzling delivery of the famous aria and
scene from -Weber's haunted and hau:ltini; " Dcr
" \Vie nahte mir der Schlemmer," was
applauded by the audience with a sort of enthu-
steam. Signor Ginglini's inimitable tendering
Benedict's own bewitching little romanza, "Figlia

d'Erina," from The Lily of Killarney, necessitated
its repetition. In its every articulate sound it
breathed evidence enticusive of the skill of the
consummate artist. It is a particularly noticeable

circumstance in regard to Mr. Benedict's concert

yesterday, that in the midst of his immense array
of miscellaneous piec::s, it comprised within its com-
pass the wholo of that distinguished musician's
own cantata, "Richard Coeur de Lion." A
production admirably pertormed throughout,
and no wonder, remembering who were the
artists among whom the four characters were
distributed—Madame Parepa being the Ma-
tilda, Madame Sainton-Dolby, the Page Urbain,
Mr. Santley, Richard Cosar de Lion himself, and
Mr. Sims 112eveS, Blonde), the Troubadour. After
the completion of the Cantata, Madame Arabella
Goddard played with wonderful delicacy and
dexterity variations upon Ariel's ed.dai fairy-song,
"Where the Bee Sucks, there lurk I," exquisitely
arranged for the pianoforte by Mr, Benedict. After-
wards coming, another of Benedict's arrangements,
not for tie pianoforte this time, but for the voice,
and for such a voice as it happened, Carlotta Patti's
—namely Schulheff's in!roduction to the famous
Carnival de Venice. A carnivel of delicious sounds
it was—a pelting of sugarplum notes—fountains,
cascades of them, shining upon the senses as the
radiant young soprano sang. It was doing with
the voice what the prestidigitateur does with his
hands. It was, if one might say so, a feat of leger-
de voix ! A word of admiration is due to Signor
Gardeni for his most dulcet and exquisitely pa-
thetic rendering of Blumenthal's delicious little
romance, "Le Chemin du Paradis"—one of the
very loveliest little French ditties ever dreamt
of by poet or musician,
for all it is so simple
both in idea and in melody. Compelled
though we are to pass by unnoticed so much
that was undoubtedly entitled to notice in this
truly remarkable concert, we would at least men-
tion in regard to it, that as it commenced nobly
with Beethoven's overture to Fidelio, it closed as
grandly, in its way, with the glorious " Wedding
March" of Mendelssohn.

BISITOF CF LONDON'S FUND.—Dr. Stanley, Dean
of Westminster, has consented to preach on behalf of this
fund on Sunday morning next, at St. Matthew's, Spring.

gardens.
THE SCENE OF SCOTT'S " QUENTIN DURWARD.'
—The ancient castle of Plessy-les Lours (Indre-et-Loire),
where Louis XI. resided and died, and in which the early
scenes of Scott's " Quentin Durward aro laid, is said to
have been lately purchased by a Paris agent de change, who
"
intends restoring it in the etylc of the period.
THE REPRESENTATION OF HUDDERSFIELD....-
A circular has been forwarded to the supporters of Nir
Akroyd, of Halifax, at the last Huddersfield election, in-
viting them to attend a meeting at the George Hotel, Hud-
dersfield, on Tuesday evening, to hear an " important
communication" from Mr Akroyd respecting the future
representation of thut town. Speculation is rife as to the
nature of the communication referred to ; and it is thought
not unlikely that Mr Akroyd is intending to retire from
the field in favour of a gentleman resident in Hudders-
field, whose name has of late been freely mentioned as a
probable candidate for Parliamentary honours —Manchester
Courtier,