The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-31 00:00:00

BIRMIN GRAM MUSICAL FES-

TIVAL.

BI /WINDHAM, FRIDAY EVENING.-This meeting com-
menced on Tuesday and ended to-day. It has been very
successful—the richness of its scheme and the excellence
of the means of giving it effnt amply deserved success.
The attendance on the first day was quite to an average
extent. Haydn's Creation was the oratorio. It went off
splendidly ; but the grand feature of the meeting and
the most numerously attended was Mendelssohn's new
work Elijah, which was given on Wednesday, and was
successful to the echo. Its celebrated author was pre-
sent, and conducted the performance. It opens with a
brief monologue by the Prophet, announcing to the Jew-
ish people the impending judgment of the Lord, the three
years' drought and famine over the land. Then follows
the overture—an entire novelty in construction ; but it is
a novelty which has suggested itscif to one who is a poet
as well as a musician ; for, after this index, the charac-
ter of the instrumental movement is clearly defined, and
it is felt to be a powerful picture of the miseries which
followed the fulfilment of the prophecy. Withoutrin-
teruption, this overture breaks into a chorus of the
people. They cry, in accents of piercing anguish, " The
deeps afford no water, and the rivers are exhausted !
The suckling's tongue now cleaveth for thirst to its
mouth ; the infant children ask for bread, and there is
no one that breaketh it to feed them !" The imagina-
tion is deeply impressed by the plaintive and heart-
rending cries and wailings of the helplessewomen, so
vividly expressed by the sounds of this chorus. Next
we have Elijah challenging the priests before Ahab
the King, and the trial sacrifice takes place. The
chorus of these priests is a specimen of con-
summate art. It is loud and clamourous, min-
gled with the barbaric clang of instruments ; and
its rhythmical movement indicates the dances which
mingled with the rites of Pagan 'idolatry. The
Prophet exhorts them tauntingly to call louder ; they
reiterate their cries, which become the accents of de-
spair. They cease from exhaustion ; and the pause of
dead silence, which indicates their failure, is more ap•
palling than any sounds could have been. Elijah then
addresses his prayer to God in accents of deep devotion;
and a choir of angels seconds his supplication, which is
successful, and then the people exult in a splendid
chorus. Elijah then intercedes with the Almighty to
stay the plague of drought—the tempest comes in an-
swer to his prayer, and a war of the elements is painted
by the orchestra with immense power ; and a grand
choral song of thanksgiving, mingled with the howling
of the blast and the raging of the storm—welcome
though terrible—closes the first part of the oratorio.
The second part brings Elijah before Ahab, who has
again fallen into idolatry ; the Prophet rebukes Jezebel,
and is forced to fly to the desert, where he sleeps " under
a juniper tree," he is watched over by angels, whose
strains are truly celestial harmony. This divine passage
was one of those which were encored. _ _

The third part is worthy of its predecessors, but its
crowning glory is a splendid piece of descriptive music,
the manifestation of the Deity, in his glory to the Pro-
phet, before he is carried up into heaven. This pas-
sage of Scripture exhibits so strikingly the majestic
language of inspiration, that we quote it :—" And
behold, the Lord passed by 1 And a mighty wind rent
the mountains around, brake in pieces the rocks, brake
them before the Lord ; but the Lord was not in the
tempest. And behold the Lord passed by! And the sea
was upheaved, and the earth was shaken ; but the Lord
was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there
came a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire. And after
the fire therecame a small still voice, and in that still voice

onward came the Lord!" Mendelssohn has drawn from
this passage tremendous musical effects, which must be
heard before the slightest conception can be formed of them.
This is the grand climax of the work. The narration of
Elijah's miraculous translation, when " there came a
fiery chariot, with fiery horses, and he went by a whirl-
wind to heaven," is the subject of a chorus of great de-
scriptive power ; and after some beautiful music, in
which allusions are made to the prophecies touching
Elijah's second appearance on the earth before the end
of all things, the oratorio ends with a grand choral hymn
of praise to the Almighty.
The vccalists were Madame Caradori Allan, Miss
Hawes, Mr. Phillips, Mr. Hobbs, Mr. Lockey, and
Herr Staudigl. Mr. Lockey is a highly promising
tenor, and succeeded in obtaining several encores on this
occasion. The other novelty of the meeting is a Miss
Bassano, a contralto of great power of organ and of
finished education. The Misses Williams were very
successful in some duets in the Creation, and generally
throughout the meeting.

PUBLIC BATHS AND WASIIHOUSES.—AUWIT the
many Acts which have passed during the last session for
the amelioration of the social condition of the community,
not the least important is the Act for the establishment of
public baths and washhouses. We are glad to find that the
Committee for the establishment of baths and washhouses
for the labouring classes have published the Act for England
with plain directions and forms for putting it into execution.
[ADVERTISEMENT.]—The following extraordinary
case, as connected with Heu.Lowxy's PILLS, cannot be made too
pablic :—George Wright, of High-street, Vauxhall, well known at
Hill's Potteries, Vauxhall-walk, where he formerly worked during
ten years, but for the last five his health had been so bad that he
could do nothing, being greatly emaciated, suffering from a diseased
liver, and also the dropsy, besides an affection of the spine. Ile was
n the hospital at Winchester for five months, and afterwards in
Westminster Hospital for three months longer. To sum up, from
almost a dying state he has been restored to such comparative health
and vigour, in the short spans of five weeks, as to astonish all who
know him, and this by Holloway's Pills, which may be had at Pro-
fessor Holloway's Establishment, 244 Strand; and of 411 ressract-
, eile medicine vendors throughbut the civilised world.