The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-24 00:00:00

MR. BENEDICI"..S CONCERT.

Yesterday afternoon Mr. Benedict gave his an-
nual concert, which has now for three-and-thirty
years been the greatest and grandest event of
the musical season in the metropolis. The doors
of St. James's Hall were opened at half-past
twelve, and from that hour until the commencement
of the concert, half-past one, a double line of car-
riages, extending the entire length of Regent-street,
continued setting down the company, and when the
opening piece was performed the scene presented
inside the splendid hall was one of extraordinary
beauty. The toilet of the ladies, who outnum-
bered the gentlemen at least forty to one, was
magnificent, every shade of colour was fully
represented, and a more brilliant and fashionable
audience has never assembled to do honour to oue
who has by his great talent, both as an instrumen-
talist and as a composer, succeeded in permanently
securing the esteem and personal respect of every
lover of music. The programme, as usual, was of
immense proportions—it contained the names of
nearly every artist of eminence,
both English and
foreign ; and the pieces selected were in every re-
spect perfectly charming. As the programme set out
no less than 52 pieces for performance, one of them
being selections from Rossini's " Hesse Solennelle,"
we shall be excused from referring to the whole of
them in detail, and instead of doing so we proceed
to make a selection from amongst the most promi-
nent performances. The first outburst of enthu-
siasm occurred early in the concert, and was ac-
corded to Signor Mongini for his singing Doni-
zetti's romanza. " Spirto gentil ;" and this was
quickly succeeded by the most rapturous applause
being bestowed on the performance of a fine com-
position by Mr. G. Osborne for two pianofortes and
four players, at the one instrument being the com-
poser and M. Wieuiawski, at the other Mr. Benedict
and Mr. Cowen. The piece was entitled " Souvenir
de Meyerbeer," and the effect of its performance by
four such finished players was superb. Then
M tdame Adelina Patti appeared and sung in her
own unapproachable manner " The Last Rose of
Summer," and here the enthusiasm of the audience
knew no bounds, and a strong effort was made for
its repetition, but the extreme length of the pro •
;eremitic induced the audience to let it pass, but not
so the next tip..., yeati. aepeseee_ This was
in a quartett, composed by Pinsuti for the occasion,
and entitled "I canta storie," the parts being
respectively sustained by Madame Patti, Madame
Trebelli, Signor Gardoni, and Mr. Sautley ;
the piece contains a solo for each of the
singers, that for the soprano abounding in the most
brilliant runs and elaborate bravura passages,
which, it need hardly be said, were performed in the
most remarkable manner by the great vocalist
The audience were perfectly enraptured, and the
applause was so unrestrainahle that the artistes
were called up to repeat the quartette, which they
did, giving it entire. Madame Patti's next triumph
was the " Shadow Song," from "Dinorah ;" and
here, again, it was impossible to withstand the
applause of the audience, and with a taste
that was highly commendable, instead of
repeating the same song, she substituted
for it Mr. Benedict's beautiful ballad " The Rose
of Erin," which fairly enraptured the entire au-
dience. This concluded the Patti contribution to
the concert. IN ext came Mdin. Miens, and here
again the same. extraordinary and boundless ap-
plause was bestowed by the audience. In the first
aira, "Non mi dir," from Don " Giovanni," the
vocalization was something splendid, and in the
duet " Qui tollis," with Mdl!e. Scalchi, and the air
" Crucifixus," from the " Masse Soleunelle," the
great vocalist sung with the most finished taste and
grandeur. Mr. Sautley sang the air " Quoniam,"
from the "Hesse," with all his great ability—bis other
pieces being a duo with Mongini " Rataplan," and
a song "La Pipa." Most of the pieces in the pro-
gramme were Italian, including all those sung by
the great English baritone, but it would have been
but a graceful compliment to Mr. Benedict had Mr.
Santley selected one of his many compositions, all
of which are quite as good, and some of them a
great deal better, than many of the foreign pieces
performed, the latter in most instances being
chosen because they just happen to have one
particularly high or low note amongst a multi-
tude of others attainable by an ordinary voice,
we have no doubt the audience would have
thought quite as much, if not more, of " Rage,
thou angry storm" as it did of "La pipe."
Madame Norman-Neruda performed with Mr.
Benedict, " the andante,and finale" from his splen-
did sonata for violin and pianoforte, and never has
the brilliant composition been more finely given.
The accomplished violinist also performed a fan-
tasia by Vieuxtemps, which was a perfect wonder
of execution. The lady received the most flatter-
ing testimony from the audience, who euthusiasti-
cially applauded her extraordinary skill. Madame
and Signor Trebelli sung by desire Nicolai's charm-
ing duo
" Dis-moi uu mot; " with a compliment
to Mr. Vernon Rigby for singing Benedict's ballad,
" Eily Mavourneen," and to Signor Campi for
" Udite o rustici," and our hearty congratulation
to Mr. Benedict, we must conclude our notice of
the brilliant and successaul performance of yester-
day afternoon.
The interior arrangements of the hall wore as
usual under the direction of Mr. Nimmo, who was
untiring in the performance of his task. Every-
thing posiible to be done for the comfort of the
immense audience had been thought of, and, thanks
to the able manner in which his directions were
carried out by Mr. Hurst and his numerous staff,
not the slightest interruption to the performance or
inconvenience to the audience occurred during the
whole of the coonceit.

MADAME Tuss.kun'S. —A fancy bBza.ar, on the
grandest possible ttyl., has this week been held at Hamp-
ton Court Palace, under the august patronage and super-.
intendence of their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Cam-
bridge, Princess Christian, and Princess Mary of 'Peck, in
aid of the funds of the Royal Cambridge Asylum for Sol-
diers' Widows. Not the least attractive feature in the
bazaar was a life-size model, executed gratuitously, and
expressly for the occasion, by the Messrs. Tussaud, of the
great Wax-work Exhibition, Raker-street, of oue cf the
aged widows in the asylum, seated, and with a cash-box
by its side, ready to receive contributions from the illus-
trious visitors who patronized the bazaar. The figure was
greatly admired, from its artistic style, as to lead every
one to imagine it to be a living person.