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

ROYAL SURREY GARDENS.

Two miscellaneous concerts, on Wednesday and
Thursday, were followed yesterday evening by another
grand performance of sacred music. The oratorio s.>
lected on this occasion was "Elijah," the next in popu-
larity as it is the nearest in worth to the great work of
Handel. If the inauguration festival for the opening of
the new music-hall had 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 Mendelssohn 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 bestowed 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
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 labour
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 hitherto
guided him in his public career. The crowd likes to be
amused, beyond a doubt ; but it also likes, now and
then, to be 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 bres.keth"—
began, very few of the thousands of persons assembled,
and none who had 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 10s. to
hear 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-
cations of M. Jullien's baton, really astonishing. The
effect of the choruses was most impressive, and con-
firmed the good opinion of the acoustic qualities of the
❑ew hall, derived from " The Messiah" on the first day.
The principal solo singers were Mesdames Clara Novello
and Rudersdorff, Miss Dolby, Messrs. Weiss and Sims
Reeves, whose singing in this well-known work requires
no comment. At the termination of the second, as of the
first part, the applause was unbounded ; and then the
audience quietly dispersed, to enjoy the other amuse-
ments of the evening.
The concert to-night, at which Alboni is announced to
sing for the second time, brings the "inauguration fee
tival" to a close.