The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-16 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, T9ESDAN EVENING, JUNE 16, 1863.

THALBERG'S FAREWELL.

Yesterday afternoon, from half-past three to nearly
five o'clock, the Queen's Concert Room, Hanover-
square, was crowded from side to side, and from
end to end with an elegantly dressed, a most
attentive, and, what was best of all, a most
appreciative audience of fashionables. People
ssho had been gathered together, there, to bid
Adieu to this Magician of the Pianoforte. It was
M. Melberg's Last Matinee ! The last ! We
can hardly even now realise that it is
so—yet so it is most certainly announced
to be. And having yesterday ourselves list-
ened to the marvellous performances of
this unrivalled pianist, we can beyond any doubt
assert that, if it is the last of them, M. Thalberg
closes his long and brilliant career when his great
powers are at their very highest. Never in all this
quarter of a century, during which he has been
alternately charming and astonishing the musical
sense of large audiences in the various capitals of
Europe in succession--never yet throughout all
that protracted interval has his touch been more
clear, more vigorous, more refined, or more
exquisitely delicate in its minute and almost
microscopic precision ! Never have those wonder-
working hands of his, more literally dazzled us by
their all but bewildering dexterity! Beginning
yesterday with, what the brief but pregnant pro
gramme implied the first piece to be, namely, an
exemplification of the " Art of Singing Applied to
the Piano," M. Thalberg, in this introductory evi-
dence of his amazicg mastery over the instrument,
opening with a delicious duet from the " Flauto
Magico" of the great master melodist, Mozart,
closed with a lovely Sicilienne from Pergolese.
As more conspicuous evidence still of his own
peculiar powers as a pianist, however—powers
in which we not only would say that he
has never yet been surpassed, but that he is
never likely to be surpassed (and that for the one
simple reason that we don't think the touch of
mortal performer could go beyond it, in the combi-
nation of tender feeling with minute rapidity)—
his own "Le Trille " was in one sense a yet
more remarkable performance than the one imme-
diately preceding it. It was certainly more excep-
tional and peculiar of its kind—in a word more
thoroughly characteristic. The "Andante" follow-
ing " Le Trille" roused the audience, however, to
a yet more noticeable display of enthusiasm. But
the gems, the flowers, the perfection of all we
witnessed yesterday in M. Thalberg's per-
formance—looked at, listened to, almost we
had said inhaled—were the bewitching adap-
tation by Thalberg himself of that haunting
" Serenade" from Don Pasquale, and, immediately
after that, Thalberg's own Fantasia itpropos to
themes suggested by the Trovatore. Watching him
as he played, drip king in the sounds that poured
from the instrument under the magical movement
of his fingers, we almost came to look upon the
musician as nearly as much of a mystery in his way
as M. Robin, or M. Houdin, or M. Philippe, or any
other of our modern Conjurors and Necromancers.
And not extravagantly, it should be said, in
one point of view—for the marvels effected by
M. Thalberg are many of them literally and
actually the achievements of legerdemain !
How by any conceivable possibility a lovely,
delicious melody like that of the serenade
can be struck out with the clearest distinctness
note after note by M. Thalberg, at the very
time that apparently and quite audibly with both
hands he is covering it, smothering it with the most
intricately elaborated accompaniments—the air it-
self rising through all the mazes of that doubled,
and sometimes, it almost sounds, quadrupled ac-
companiment—just fairly defies comprehension, just
absolutely beggars description. Only that the com-
parison might appear a mere extravagance to those
who have not listened to M. Thalberg's performances,
we should be fain to insist upon it, that one of the
aptest symbols of the art-miracles achieved by him
at those times as a musician—would be the produc-
tion in purest marble by a sculptor more skilled
than Monti, of a Venus or a Flouri discernable in
all her loveliness under the semblance of a perfect
cloud of the most gorgeous lace So lavish and
so infinitely delicate are the adornments and
decorations of aound covering and, as we have
said, almost as it were smothering some de-
licious melody with accompaniments when
Thalberg is at his best, (as he was yesterday)
seated with outstretched hands before the piano-
forte. Remembering all which—remembering the
the delight he has so often given us—reluctantly
and gratefully we here bid the great pianist
Farewell !

CRAMBERS'S HANDY GUIDE TO PARIS

The wonder is that a Guide Book precisely
of this character has not long since been published.
Here is the very book, however, at last, and ex-
actly of the size, with the illustrations, and at the
price, that we could have wished it to be published,
supposing we could have been consulted beforehand.
As to the size of the book, the very name of it tells
plainly enough what that is. It is the handiest size
imaginable. Without being too small, it is
just one of those conveniently shaped volumes
one can slip easily into the pocket of an
overcoat, or into the travelling bag slung at
one's side, when turning, from a stay-at-home,
for a week or fortnight, into a continental voyageur.
Less than 200 pages, altogether, comprise within
them here the pick of the information most desir-
able to a stranger in the French metropolis. There
are two be iutiful little folding maps or plans prefixed
to the work, at the distance of a few pages from each
other—like the handiest of frontispieces to the han-
diest Parisian Guide-book it has been our agreeable
task to turn over. One is a Clue Plan of the City
of Paris—a plan marking as comprehensible as pos-
sible, through the eye to the understanding, the
winding mazes of that most intricate labyrinth.
The other folding map or plan displays to
view, on the other hand, the Environs of
the French Capital. Scattered among the letter-
press descriptions of the various localities of Paris
are several excellent woodcuts of scenes, buildings,
streets, and public monuments : such as—La Made-
leine, The Tuileries, Notre Dame, L'llCitel des In-
valides, La Porte St. Denis, L'HOtel de Ville, La
Colonne de Juillet, L'Arc de l'Etoile, La I3ourse,
et cetera. The variety of useful information com-
prised together i❑ Chambers's Handy Guide
it would be difficult to give anyone an adequate
idea of,without our running the ristt of infringing the
copyright appertaining to the publishers. Every-
thing that any reasonable mortal can want to know
about the different routes to Paris, about the relative
value of English and French money, about Hotels
and Lodgings at Paris, about Cafes and Eating-
houses, about the Post-office and the Telegraph—
here, in separately-headed little paragraphs, he will
find to a nicety described ! And so o❑ precisely in
regard to all the rest—Paris Theatres, Paris News-
papers, Paris Sights—one after the other each
famous place is described by the most well-
informed and the least garrulous cicerone
we ever had the satisfaction of obtain-
ing information from. This kind of cicerone
having the advantage over all others of real flesh
and bloed, that whenever we are tired of consulting
him—we can " shut him up" and slip him into
our pocket. The Handy Guide is just a Book for
the million—and it makes its appearance in the
very nick of time, immediately before the recipro-
cation of excursion trips by the Londoners and the
Parisians. At Paris, it is procurable for 1 franc 25
centimes, at 14, Rue de Buci, that is, at J. Roths-
child's. Here, on this side of the Channel, it can
be had, we presume, from any bookseller i❑ the
land, being distributed, to that end, far and wide
throughout the trade from the establishment of
Messrs. W. and R. Chambers, of London and
Edinburgh.