The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-02-26 00:00:00

A NEW

MUSICAL CELEBRITY IN LIVERPOOL.

Towards the latter end of the past year, the name of
Mr. Silas, a young artist, of Amsterdam, was mentioned
to Mr. W. Sudlow, the honorary secretary of the Phil-
harmonic Society, by a resident Dutch gentleman of this
town. So exceedingly strong were the terms of eulogy
in which the young musician's name was introduced, both
as a composer and pianist, that Mr. Sudlow hesitated
even to hope that so rare a jewel was to be picked up
within the dykes of the Dutch capital. A short time
since, however, a series of five romances in MSS., the
composition of Mr. Silas, came into the hands of Mr.
Sudlow, through the agency of the gentleman above allu-
ded to.

After a careful examination of these compositions, Mr.
Sudlow, himself an amateur of refined taste, and an
acknowledged high authority and impartial judge in such
matters—now pronounces them to be equal to the best
compositions of Mendelssohn in the same style. They
are written in a somewhat similar form to the great maes-
tro's lieder ohn work, and are shortly to be published, we
believe, under the auspices of the Philharmonic Society.
An engagement to appear at an instrumental concert on
the 9th of April (being the third in the subscription), has
been forwarded to Mr. Silas, at Amsterdam, and accepted
by that gentleman. He is to arrive here a fortnight pre-
vious to the concert, to superintend the rehearsal of a
MSS. overture, also his own composition, and which he
will conduct. At this concert his power of extemporising
upon a given theme will be tested in the presence of the
audience. It will be seen, by the annexed translated ex-
tract from an elaborate critique which appeared in the
Handelsblad (Amsterdam newspaper) of the 24th Decem-
ber last, that he possesses wonderful facility in this
respect, and is otherwise a fertile and promising genius.
inflated
may premisecriedwith
these this
feuilletons issued by the Paris press :
Amsterdamlngiving the
criticism
i ni gs
notex t rtaoc tb,
e'sc'elass
" At a concert given at the Felix Meritis, on the 21st inst., a
young pianist, Mr. E. Silas, a native of this town, made his
debut, and produced a sensation which for a long time has not
been equalled,

" Ile.played a concerto of his own composition, which, for
depth of conception and elegance of style, may be placed at the
side of any of the principal composers of our time ; its execu-
tion was a perfect model of all we could wish to hear, and was
received by a crowded audience of the first families in this
town with rapturous applause ; but the enthusiasm was at its
height when, on being recalled, he extemporised on a theme
given to him by an eminent professor present in such a won-
derful manner, that the delighted audience could not rest sa-
tisfied without giving him a unanimous and enthusiastic third
recall to continue, which he did on another melody.

" Indeed we cannot find words sufficiently strong to express
the admiration we felt, and which seemed to prevail with every
one present. The orchestra also executed an overture of his
composition, which showed equal merit and gave evidence of
what may be expected from so accomplished a musician.
" He received his principal musical education in Germany,
and finished at the Conservatoire de Musique, in Paris, where
he gained, last month, the first prize for a performance on the
organ."

THE NIGHT BOATS TO WOODSIDE.—To render any
promised accommodation valuable to the public we must
be able to depend upon it being faithfully afforded.
Punctuality in the appointments of men with each other,
—punctuality in the arrival and departure of mails, rail-
ways, steamboats, and conveyances of every kind—is a
social necessity. If a man chooses to throw away his
own time, he has no right to throw away that of his
neighbour, by forgetting, or procrastinating, the perform-
ance of a promise; and there may even arise occasions in
which to do so becomes a positive crime. An instance of
this has been brought to our knowledge, in the conduct,
or neglect, or by whatever more polite term it may be
called, of some official connected with the work of the
Woodside Ferry. The Commissioners of that enterpris-
ing locality, it is well known, recently engaged with the
public to run a boat, hourly, from twelve at night until
morning, charging contractors, as well as casual passen-
gers, sixpence per trip for the accommodation. Now no
man can tell under what important circumstances such
accommodation might be sought. Sometimes it might
be made the means of postponing that separation of
friends met around the social board, which the necessity
of meeting an eleven or twelve boat occasions. Often it
might enable us to perform more serious duties. But we
must be able to depend upon it being punctually afforded ;
and parties taking advantage of it ought not to be dis-
appointed, and indeed punished, as was the case on Friday
morning last. It so occurred on Thursday evening that
.a
gentleman, well known to many of our readers, was, wit:- his
wife, at a party on the Liverpool side of the Mersey , and
with the promise of the Birkenhead Commissioners before
him, conceived that he might depend upon being conveyed
across thu• river. Although, however, he was on the
Landing-stage
could be had from Woodside until half-past five in the
zi,nigg..sta Forge
threetwowas hours and-a-half did our friend and
ed, were afraid of sub-
f
jthe gale of that very
m
his wife wait on the Landing-stage the leisure of some of
the kid-gloved officials
.otf the Woodside Commissioners,
fine morning.. We beg to direct the attention of thh
proper authorities to the necessity of punctuality, and the
fact that when public bodies make promises, much private
injury may accrue from those promises not being per-
oerc
jetting themselves
captains,
r
per-
formed. Even a sold sustained by an intended passenger.
from having waited an hour upon so exposed a locality as
the landing-stage, 18 not a light matter. At all events,
the pattern, ferry of the river, well paid as its officials are,
ought to-be the last to behave in this manner.
GAS.—An unequalled variety of Chaarlagra_and Lus-
tres_for Gas will be found at thelilimea7tory and Show-
rooms of WILLIAK,ZENN SMITH, 26 and 28, HAN.
O,I7JEIt aromuLopposita the Tax-offices.