The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-19 00:00:00

THE CONCERT.

That the directors of the Crystal Palace concerts
counted largely upon the attraction of Mr. Sims
Reeves for their popular concert of yesterday may
be reasonably inferred from the placards distributed
all over the town during the last week, and bearing
the:eminent tenor's name, together with the some-
what disjointed and telegraphic intelligence,
" Good Friday"—" one shilling ;" but whatever
were the hopes of profit entertained by the direc-
tors the result must surely have satisfied them, for
the immense building was literally crammed on the
occasion, Indeed Mr. Sims Reeves has sung so
rarely of late in London, in consequence of his pro-
longed.provincial engagement with Madame Lind-
Goldschmidt, that the interest which under any
circamstances would belong to his performances
is at this moment at its very highest :point ; and
when we state that in addition to the magnetic
power of his name, the attractions of our famous
English bass, Mr. Weiss, and the accomplished
Madame Rudersdorff, with other miscellaneous en-
tertainments, were called into requisition, the im-
monse attendance of yesterday may be easily ac-
counted for.

Mr. Sims Reeves, who was in the fullest posses-
sion of his noble voice, sang Handel's " Comfort ye,
my people," " Lord, remember Daniel," and " The
enemy said," in his very best manner, eliciting,
in every instance, unadimous applause of the
most enthusiastic kind. " The enemy said "
was in fact redemanded, hut Mr. Reeves wisely
declined to repeat this very fatiguing piece. A simi-
lar compliment was paid to Madame Rudersdorff's
clever execution of " Let the bright Seraphim,"the
trumpet obligato to which was played to perfection
by Mr. T. Harper, but the lady limited the expres-
sion of her gratitude to bows.
The fine voice and energetic, manly style of Mr.
Weiss gave the fullest effect to the airs, " Why do
the nations" and " The trumpet shall sound," both
of which were enthusiastically applauded. Genuine
bases are becoming so rare in this country that the
value of an experienced and admirable artist like
Mr. Weiss grows more and more conspicuous and
remarkable. In reality we have but two legitimate
English bases capable of taking part in concerts of
the first class, and we need scarcely add that no
baritone voice, however good, can supply that pecu-
liar heavy quality of sound indispensable to the due
performance of music designed for a bass. Thus,
not only is Mr. Weiss acceptable at all times in ora-
torio no less than in opera ; but it were difficult to
imagine how any company of native artists could be
complete without him.

The enormous masses assembled on this occasion
made rather more noise by their locomotion at the
beginning of the concert than was quite consistent
with the solemnity of the day, the serious character
of the music, or the eminence of the singers ; but
eventually the " mobility" became more quiet and
respectful, and happily availed themselves but very
slightly of the somewhat questionable appeal to
them "to join" in the performance of the 100th
Psalm, the " Evening Hymn," and the National
Anthem. The concert was given on the stage of the
theatre, and was heard, whenever the visitors were
still, to excellent advantage. It was most satisfac-
tory to find Mr. Sims Reeves in such good voice, for
he will doubtless have very onerous duties to per-
form at the approaching Handel Festival, in which
all musical England will naturally expect that its
great vocal champion will " do his duty."