The Sun.
London, England, 1857-02-21 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 21, 1857.

PUBLICATIONS.

NEW NOVEL EY THE AUTHOR OF " MARGARET
MAITLAND."
Now reg.dy at all the libraries, In 3 vols.,
THE DAYS OF MY LIFE
An Autoslography.
By the Author of" Margaret Maitland," " &c.
Hurst and Blackett, Publishers, successors to Henry Colburn.

THIRD AND CHEAPER EDITION, REVISED.
Now ready, in I vol., with Illustrations, Gs., bound,
ASTERN HOSPITALS and ENGLISH
ILA Ntilti;Eg: The Narrative of Twelve Months' Experience in
the hospitals of Koulali and Scutari. By a LADY VOLUNTEER.
" A work doing honnir to humanity."—Examtner.
llurst and Blaekett, Publishers, 13, Great Mariborou;h-street.

MISS CATTIER I _YE HAYES'S CO N CE.RTS.

(Prom the Manchester Guardian.)
Miss Catherine Hayes gave the first of two concerts, in
the Free trade Hall, on Thursday evening. The immense
hall was well filled, with a most respectable audience ; and
certainly its walls never before echoed to such genuinely
enthusiastic plaudits and cheers, as bestowed upon any
individual artiste or performauce.
Miss Catherine Hayes took her farewell of Manchester
in August, 1851, very shortly before starting for America ;
the high estimation that had been here formed of her
talents being shown by -the audiences that crowded the
old . Free-trade Hall on the occasion of those parting
performances.- Since that time, she has voyaged roan
the globe, singing in ,all parts of the United States,
in California (we believe), in Australia, in the E ist
Indies, and elsewhere; her pre hes have been
soueded in varying styles and differing laegnamee,
but they have al ways been of the highest. Now
after many a tour through Ireland (her native country)
and Scotland, she is once more atuoneet us; and she showed
last evening, in the most unmistakable style, that the latest
and loudest praises bestowed upon her, have been fully de-
served. Her five years' travel, and the arduous profes-
sional duties through which she has pissed, here not —if
we can trust our memory--prejudicially affected, in the
slightest degree, the quality of her voice or her artiste
skill. Indeed, while we write, wu feel a certainty that
she never sang, with a more charming naturalness or greater
power than last evening ; and we are almost tempted to be-
lieve that her voice has become even more mellow and sym-
pathetic than ever. It is not difficult to decide why Cathe-
rine Hayes bee been and is so triumphantly successful, espe-
cially in ballads—a class of music that always mud tell,
even.upon the 'most cultivated minds, musically speaking,
and which witlethe uncultivated is the class that represents
the power of music, seeing that it embodies that form of
expressing natural feelings and emotions which must be the
most direct in its course to the human heert. She is suc-
cessful because she is natural ; because her nature is keenly
sensitive and rightly impulsive ; because, with the whole
power of her mind, she seems to throw herself into what she
has to do; and because, for her object, elm has an irresistible
instrument—a voiceat once sweet,mellew,round, and pewer-
ful,thoroughlysympathetic,admirably cultivate 1, and under
the most perfect control. With an ability to execute the
ornamentationsand frivolities of musical composition, which
might be envied by a French prima donna, sho is never
tempted to blemish a ballad by shakes, runs, or tricks of
any kind ; what she believes to be the sentiment or the
feeling that the composer had or ought to have had, that
alone sho_ strives to realise for herself and her audience.
Thus, last evening, she held the audience entranced by the
fervid pathos with which she s-nt forth the Irish melody,
"'The harp that once, through Tara's halls ;" it was a richly
musical wail, the remembrance of which will long haunt
in
to
many who heard it. And thus, too, she called tears
many an eye, from the exquisite beauty and force which she
imparted to Bishop's simple " Home ! sweet home !" The
rebound of the audience, when the ballad terminated, was
merely natural; and their enthusiasm was at the highest.
'Ye regret that she did not repeat the ballad ; but she sub-
stituted " Comin' thro' the rye," and gave it with so much
naïveté, that she was compelled, after retiring, again to
appear and acknowledge the plaudits of the audience, who
rose almost en masse. She was of course encored in the
Irish melody ; and for it she substituted " Bonnie Prince
Charlie." We did not hear her first solo, which was Mey-
erbeer's " Ah! mon fits;" but her other operatic selection
was the "Costa Diva," which es as rendered very finely.
Another performance of Miss Hayes' remains to be noticed
—a vocal polka by Alary. It was wonderful as a triumph
over difficulties ; very pleasant hem the jocund ease with
which the most trying runs and flights were taken; and
remarkable, alike with the " Heine! sweet home!" as
showing the great compass of her voice.