The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-12 00:00:00

Worcester Musical Festival.

WORCESTER, SEPT. 11.
The selection of sacred music performed in the
cathedral to-day was varied and attractive. I°-
deed, the festival could not have opened more aus-
piciously. Every one was pleased to find the old
"Te Deum," composed for George 11., after the
battle of Dettingen (1743), restored to its place.
Among Handel's various settings of the hymn °"'
St. Ambrose the last is incomparably the finest;
There are great beauties in the Utrecht " Te Donn,
great beauties in the Chandos " Te Deums," and
sublime beauties in the Funeral Anthem for
Queen Caroline (1737), which was begun
and finished v ithin the space of five days
but for sustained grandeur, the 66 Dettin-
gen" surpasses them all; and this not forget-
ting the charge so stoutly maintained by some of
Handel's editors and critics, that the materials of ne
small part of it were borrowed from a Bolognese ,
composer of the 17th century, Padre Francisco Ifria,
whose works it would be well worth reviving, if
only for the sake of comparison. The solo singers
in the " Te Deum" were Madame Patey whytoek,
Miss Pullen, Messrs. Cummings and Lewis Thomas'
Mr. T. Harper played the trumpet part in "Thou
art the King of Glory," a part composed by Handel
for his favourite trumpeter, Valentine Snow, the
Harper of his day.- But the choruses are the west
inspiring parts of the "Dettingen," and their effect
in a cathedral is wonderfully striking and impressive'
The Te Deum" was followed by Mendelssohn'o
melodious and admirable setting of the 55th psalm'
" Give ear to my prayer, 0 God" e, Hot' mein
Bitten"—written at Berlin in 1844), sung to the
English paraphrase by Mr. Bartholomew. gevi
familiar this beautiful work has been made by the
singing of Madame Goldschmidt Lind, and what in-
tense expression that accomplished lady gave to the
last movement (" Oh ! for the wings of a dove"), is
e
well known. Nothing could better suit the voice of
Madame Lemmens-Sherrington, to whom the sole
part was allotted on the present occasion. Mea-
delssohn originally composed this psalm for soprano
voice, chorus, and organ accompaniment ; but he
subsequently scored the organ part for orchestra,
and it was of this second version that Mr. Done'
conductor of the Worcester Festival, availed hira;
self. A selection from Costa's oratorio, " Naarnati'
concludes the first part. This, which only sinned
on on the side of brevity, comprised some of the me
attractive pieces in the work, and gave such generar
satisfaction that the only regret was that Worceste
should be denied the privilege of listening to the
whole oratorio, a privilege which has already ee,ll
enjoyed by Manchester, Lichfield, and Liverpool,
and is about to be enjoyed by Norwich, at the ar
proaching festival in October. The selection in-
cluded the graceful trio, " Haste to Samaria' 4,
let us go" (Madame Lemmens-Sherrington'
Madame Sainton-Dolby, and Mr. Cummings)'
the solemn recitative and air 44 Hear Lee'
Almighty God" (Mr. Santley) ; the recitative,
" God be praised" (MadameLemmens); the reelta;
tive and air, " I dreamt I was in heaven" (Alacbfine
Sainton)—one of the most winning and genii;
melodies in modern oratorio; and last, not least, t
inspiriting quartet, " Honour and glory, Almighty'
be Thine" (Mdlle. Titiens, Madame Dolby, gessrsi;
Cummings and Santley). Had the selection bye
twice as long, it would have afforded just twice ,s
amount of gratification. The second part of the dO,O
performance was devoted to Parts 1 and 2 of 110°0,
"Creation," with Mdlle. Titiens, Madame Letup:le:he
Sherrington, Messrs.:Sims Reeves and Sandell° .th
solo parts. To Mdlle. Titiens was assigned, "
verdure clad ;" to Madame Lemmens," The marl
cl-
):1
lous work," and "0, mighty pens ;" to Mr.
as ntle
" Rolling with foaming billows ;" and the descriPtib%
recitatives, to Mr. Sims Reeves, whose return to t a
Festival of the Three Choirs, after the interval f
ISTO''
year, has given unanimous satisfaction,
vanish" and " In native worth." With such a COllya
bination of solo singers it may readily be •ve
belle
ra
that Haydn's still fresh and tuneful music was he,3the
in perfection. In the choruses of the " Creation'
we
members of the Festival choirs are as much at peva
as in those of the "Messiah." Mr. Done enndtle
the performance.
Divine
In the morning, at half-past 8, there was
service in the cathedral, Mr. T. Smith, in the•
cathe
sence of Dr. Wesley, organist of Glocester u,
dral, presiding at the organ—a temporary insisoo.
merit erected for the occasion by Mr. Niche.ont
The chant service was one composed by the ern„l rof
absentee ; the anthem, " Praise the Lord, v
r
50u1,,, by Mr. Goss, organist of St. Paul's Cathe
d
itev,
London. The sermon was preached by the for
J. W. Leigh, vicar, of Stoneleigh, who chose
tio
his text Chronicles 1, chap. 25, verse 7--" S° ere
number of them, with their brethren that that
instructed in the songs of the Lord, even all
were cunning, was two hundred fourscore a-13-:
eight ;" and cited with great propriety in they ruli
edie
gress of his discourse the verse that iltun „rids
precedes it, " All these were under the Dord,
of their father for song in the house of the ' 'cO
serif
with cymbals, psalteries, and harps, for the „lord
of the house of God," &c.—a somewhat a". of
passage for the consideration of those who
00 of
that oratorios in a cathedral are " a desecrati
the Holy of Holies." • liter and
The prospects of this festival look brig ~tber ;
brighter, notwithstanding the threatening we' the
•
and it may be safely concluded that it will he
te the
means of doing credit to the charity as well as
musical reputation of Worcester. _ _

1 - ----------
- _ ____—
THE TEMPLE OF CAPERNAUM.—Mr. ICeit. Jobf
!1, 1/'
stop and other gentlemen engaged in the explorati-3° °l°
of
Capernaum,tine have
ndeisacrolyveirfeitdoatttiTuietlol Henutmiret.he4ceienotte'relso
this discovery is very great, since there is no other band'of
ing at the present day which can be identified as al°
those in which Jesus actually was.--Edinburgh Coin
fpa ship
RESCUE FROM SHIPWRECK.--.AS the 13— 133, or
Heron, belonging to the General Steam Navigation last,
patty, was on her passage from Edinburgh on Frid39
_go
about 6 a.m., Captain Dyer sighted a wrecked bark Sq°ll`s,
two. miles off the Shipwash Light vessel, with won Lana
the
ing on the topsail yard, it blowing a perfect gani°,, r iiii'
time, and a very heavy sea running. Captain ;-- e,„„pect
mediately hove to, and, a boat being lowered ana 111ttiog
by five of the crew, succeeded, after some time, in rese ~,
eight persons from the wreck, where they had been '
upwards of five hours.,