The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-12 00:00:00

WORCESTER MUSICAL FESTIVAL,

WORCESTER, Sept. 11.
Mozart's "Requiem," thanks to the example set by our
admirable Sacred Harmonic Scciety, seems to have taken
permanent root at the country festivals —the better for art,
which cannot but derive benefit from the frequent contem-
plation of so incomparable a model. There was much to
praise in the performance of the "Requiem" at Worcester
Cathedral. The four solo singers—Madlle. Tietjens, Mdm.
Sainten-Dolby, Mr. Wilbye Cooper, and Mr. Weiss--ap-
preached their task with becoming reverence ; and their
singing throughout was marked no less by devotional feel-
ing than correctness. An unimprovable text could hardly
have been more religiously respected. The three quartets—
" Tuba mirum," " Recordare, Jeau pie," and " Benedictus
—were singularly well given, the "Recordare" more espe-
cially, a movement alike the admiration of musicians and
amateurs, and which, towards the end, when the ear and
the mind have been rapt in a sense of continuous beauty,
contains a new and unexpected passage,—
" Inter eves locum prfesta,
Et ab hwdis me sequestra,
Statuens in parte dextra."
more eloquent than all the rest. Never was uplifted prayer
clothed in a strain of such persuasive loveliness. The mem-
bers of the chorus in most instances did their duty well. The
florid counterpoint in the magnificent fugue of the " Kyrie
eleisen"—built upon a subject closely resembling that of
"And with his stripes," in "The Messiah"—might have
been steadier, and more precision on the part of the conduc-
tor would have been advantageous to the resumption of the
"Requiem reternam dona nobis," after the soprano solo,
" Lux roterna" (Madlle. Tietjens) ; but there was little else
with which to find fault. The sublime " Dies ira)" left no-
thing to wish ; and as much may be said of the " Rex tre-
mends3 majestatis"—tremendous in its majestic embodi-
ment of the theme. The " Confutatis tualedietis)! was
equally happy. The last verse of this,—
" Oro supplex et accliuis,
Cor contritum quasi cinis;
Gere curam mei finis"—
. ..

as exquisitely pathetic in its supplication as that in the
" Recordare" is consoling, was thrillingly impressive. With
what poetic truth the distinction between the two is ima-
gined and conveyed need hardly los insisted on, when it is
remembered that in the " Confutatis" the supplicant is ad-
dressing the Supreme Judge, while in the "Recordare" his
appeal is to the gentle Saviour. To the honour of the Wor-
cesterians be it recorded that their chorus-singers appeared
to enter into the feeling of this distinction with just as firm
conviction as the eminent quartet of solo-singers who came
all the way from London to sing the "Recordare." The
" Lachrymosa dies illa," with the striking passage of slowly
ascending intervals on the line " Qua resurget ex favilla"—
which a celebrated critic in his analysis of the work has de-
scribed as a " play upon words, less frequent in Mozart than
in Handel"—(it were fortunate if every musical composer
could play upon words like Mozart in the " Requiem" and
Handel in his "Israel I")—was not quite so immaculate,
though still an excellent performance. The elaborate and
masterly Offertorium ( " Domaine Jesu Christe," and
" Hostias et preces Tibl") was given with remarkable clear-
ness; its ingenious contrivances were effectively revealed,
and its most characteristic points—for example, the Rex
glorias " and '6 Do ore leonis," in the " Domine Jcsu
Christo," and the mystic progression of harmony to which
the prayer for resurrection after death (" Fac nobis, Do-
mine, de morte transire ad vitam") is set, one of the most
extraordinary passages in this extraordinary composition—
expressed with startling vividness. The "Sanctus" usher-
ing(quartet), was quite as satisfac-
tory, o ry in
the " Benedictus"
the short fughetla, " Hosanna in excelsis," which
comes twice, being each time delivered with commendable
another example of deep
pp
ar et
hc iossi o
un
B. t
eTdhteo
"aAbsgtrilaucst Pmeu4;cal beauty of the highest
order—was equally fine, and nothing could have been
better than the subdued tone in which the appealing
phrase " Dona nobis paean" was uttered. The last
chorus—merely- a repetition of the first, as with "The horse
and his rider " in Handel's " Israel "—has been mentioned.
The effect of the "Requiem" in a cathedral is something
wholly apart—peculiar and indescribable. What a work
No wonder Mozart was so painfully anxious to be spared
long enough to enable him to finish it (without the inter-
vention of his pupil Sussmayer)—for assuredly it is his
" Transfiguration." Beethoven's " Christ on the Olive
Montt," great as it is in many respects, sounded occasion-
ally a trifle melodramatic after the "Requiem." Something
of this may be laid to the account of the tame and unwar-
rantable English version to which—under the name of
ngedi," the refuge-place and stronghold
pursued by Saul (" Samuel," of David, when
Book I.)
—it is too frequently
the Netora now to Ally it, Zeett‘oven would under no yre-