Litchfield enquirer., 1875-11-25

&44 Q~@4G4 44O4Sg O4CAzs SeA8A 4CsACCS G40AIA- ating the awful opening line of the poem, sLeave every hope behind, all ye who en- ter hereI"
 After this first outburst of unendurable anguish. the music quiets down into the Complaining tones of hopeless misery. in troducing the saddest of melodies on the bass clarinet, English horn, and other reed instruments. After this follow few lighter measures suggestive of earthly loves, soon interrupted by final irruption of barbarous and hellish noises; and this part closes with an outburst of despairing |agony even more hideous than the open ing announcement of the eternal curse The Purgatorio follows. Beginning with heavy harmonies it lightens by degrees as the agony of torment is alleviated by the hope of near redemption. Finally an un- seen chorus chants tEe Magnificent, and the symphony closes with the approaching dawn of heavenly joy This is the newest of new school music. Most of the newspaper critics, and most of its hearers, wesuspect. condemn it utterly, while few recognize it's unmistakable power and yield modified praise. One thing is cer- tain; a second hearing removes many of objections of the first, and we are inclined Co believe that although it may lack the spontaneous sublimity of Beethoven it must rank as very great musical work EDWIN BOOTH IN HAMLET
 Thursday night brought an unexpected piece of good luck. Edwin Booth was to play Hamlet at the Fifth Avenue Theater. A splendid chance for one who had never seen Shakespeare on the stage, or Edwin Booth, to see Booth in Shakespeare. The theater was cro ded, and, curiously enough, with quite little party of Litchfeld County people near each other. When the curtain rose, and sentinels paced in the dim light, and actors in enor- nous helmets came in, we could not real. ize that this was Hamlet and that one of those stagey fellows was Horatio. There was nothing very startling either about the Ghost. Then the court scene opens and we are introduced to many people we have read about bueshave never seen. The King and Queen are we'll enough, but Polonius is caricature. The shreWd old courier was gentleman, and this is a clown. Hamlet disliked the old man be- cause he stood between him and Ophelia, and reviled and under-rated him. The stage people have adopted all this preiu- dice. and set down Polonius as a fool merely becaus he could not fathom Ham let
 There at last is Hamlet! Booth certain r looks the part. Then the talk begins. How much stranger Shakespeare's English seems spoken than read. We never before realized how long ago he lived. 70, That this too solid flesh would melt" Now we see Booths Hamlet-nct the Hamlet good acting but mere acting. As the play goes on. however, our first disappointment wears of and we are lost in wonder at the perfect elocutlon and the grace of motion of the actor. He has all the quiet power, all the wonderful discernment, and all the grand dignity of Shakespeare's Hamlet. But he is crazy and Hamlet was not crazyl Booth knows the head but not the heart of Hamlet. He never seems to under stand how exquisitely hateful to the noble soul of the Dane is the part that circum- stances thrust on him. He is an honora- ble gentleman and inexorable fate requires of him the deed of a savage. His head acknowledges the duty of blood revenge but his heart revolts against It. What room is there for love and OpheIa in the heart of a murderer? He renounces her: he resolves to kill his uncle; yet he can never stooP to the work of an assassin, and vrestles with fate till the last. Until we feel how foreign to his true nature were the harshness he assumed and the mad ness he feigned, we can never understand the agony he feels when death leaves him no time to show out the nobility and gen. tleness there is Tn him:
 Oh God Horatic. what wounded name,
 
 These are first impressions, simply. not a criticism of Booths Hamlet. It is grand personation, and possibly our most serious objections are mere misunder- standings, natural on the first hearing of so great a part.
 THE PHILHARMONIC, FKEIsCHCTZ, THOMAS,
 RosS1NT's NEssE soLKSSKLLE-
 On Friday afternoon came the general rehearsal of the Philharmonic Society, with piano playing, Wachtel and Beetho- ven's Heroic Symphony. No doubt the piano playing was good but Von Bulow has pretty much effaced its impression. Wachtel has . glorious voice, roz, ct pre- terea nihil. it struck us. yet he was en- eored most enthusiastically by the audi ence. The Heroic Symphony was grand. It has been played so much as to have be- come rather hackneyed to New Workers, but.tO us it was fresh as it is sublime. The Philharmonic Society come far short of Thomas finish of execution and beauty of light and shade: nevertheless they fully satisfied our uncritical ear in the symphony.
 The German Opera troupe gave Von Weber's Der Freischutx. Saturday after noon. It is full of fine music. The sing ing and orchestra were fair. the incanta- ton scene absurd, and we were amazed at the number of familiar church tunes that crop out of the opera. It has evidently been thoroughly ransacked for religious uses.
 In the evening came the Philharmonic Concert at the Academy, and Thomas at Steinway Hall. The Philharmonics have made great blunder in running Opposi- ton in that way to Thomas. Even if he