The Sun.
London, England, 1856-07-19 00:00:00

ROYAL SURREY OARDENS.

Two miscellaneous concerts, on Wednesday and
Thursday, wele iollowed yesterday evening by anothei
,Agrand perEr onnce of sacred music. The oratorio se
cted on thieocca,iun was "Elijah," the next in popu
larity as it i, the inearest in worth to the great work o
,Elancle'. If the inaueuration festival ftir the op'ening of
the new musio:hall bad been productive of no other in
cident worthy to be recorded, the fact that upwards of
7,000 persons were assembled in a public garden to listen
to a composition of so elevated a character as,'‘ Elijah "
would suffice to preserve the event from oblivion. Never
was the masterpiece of Mend,lssohn performed before so
vast an audience. The crowd was so enormous that
numbers were compelled to listen to the music outside,
which, as the weather had taken a favourable turn long
before the concert began, was neither disagreeable nor
inconvenient. To the credit of all present it should be
added that the attention paid from beginning to end was
just as marked, and the applause bstowed as warm
and discriminating as any performance of a sacred
oratorio we are able to remember. Nor were there any
of those curtailments which are occasionally resorted to,
with the intention of diminishing in some degree what
certain sceptics, who will not admit that fine music can
ever become popular, believe it to be the forced labor
of listening to it. M. Jullien, it is unnecessary to say,
was never of that persuasion; and he had good reason
last night to persist in the faith which has hi•herto
guided him in his public career. The crowd likes to be
amused, beyond a doubt ; hut it also likes, now and
then, to he edified. The "Elijah" of Mendelssohn was
given on the present occasion, under M. Jullien's direc-
tions, precisely as it is given by the Sacred Harmonic
Society at Exeter Hall—that is, allowing for the addi-
tional wind instruments indispensable to balance the
weight of more than 800 voices and a complete army of
" strings," just as the composer bequeathed it to the
world. Not one note was omitted ; and yet we are
convinced that when the final chorus---" Then shall your
light break forth as the light of morning breaketh"—
began, very few of the thousands of persons assembled,
and none who bad followed the oratorio attentively
throughout, were in the least fatigued. A long desul-
tory miscellaneous programme of vocal and instrumen-
tal music is far more wearisome to the spirit than one
great connected work, in which the interest is gradually
and sensibly developed. At any rate, the experiment
of last night was triumphantly successful, and justified
the hope that the Royal Surrey Gardens, with their new
ball and their musical director, may be the means even-
tually of doing a great deal for the moral culture and

improvement, as well as for the mere healthy relaxation
of the masses. It is not, however, " festival " and ex-
clusive audiences—who can afford to pay ss. or 103. to
h ar good music—but the shilling audiences to come
about whom we are solicitous ; and we are pleased to
find an enterprise on so large a scale as that of the Royal
Surrey Gardens Company,- based upon the improving
taste of the community and the higher tone of feeling
that has of late years been forcing its way slowly and
surely into the very humblest of our popular amuse-
ments, rather than upon consideration of profits to be
obtained from sources less exemplary.
But to leave speculation, and say a few words of
"Elijah." On the whole the execution was admirable,
_ _

and, taking into consideration the unprecedented num
ber of voices and instruments that had to obey the indi•