Familiar as the Germania and Orchestral Union had made us with the Tannhäuser overture in Boston, we felt that now we heard it truly for the first time. It needed all that mass and brilliancy of violin sounds, to bring out all its features in their just expression, and indeed to furnish more than nominally the eight real and distinct violin parts in certain passages. The conductor knew this music perfectly and had impressed its intentions upon the noble material under his bâton so successfully, that it grew upon the ear and mind, from the first chords to the last, a wonderful and splendid whole. The overture produced a most decided impression, for a new work of such complexity and magnitude. Mr. MASON's playing of the Concertstück did not seem to us to do him so much justice, as his remarkably fluent, delicate and easy rendering of the florid and rather Willmers-like Nocturne with which he answered the encore. The Concerto was skilfully, and, in some parts, beautifully played, but hardly with such sustained power and firmness, and such masterly unity of style as one could wish. Now and then a passage came out not quite neatly and distinctly, and the impression was too feeble. The place indeed was wholly unpropitious for a piano programme; the instrument, really a fine new Erard, emitting such a hard and tinkling sound, that one fancied it a very old one; such we doubt not was the deadening influence of the room, at least from our point of hearing. The vocal selections were of the best, but not so the performance. The MENDELSSOHN UNION is but a new society, and there is evidence of earnestness and faithfulness on the part of its members; at all events they all sing. But their number, only seventy, although there could be no complaint of want of loudness, was by no means a sufficient balance to that powerful orchestra, even with half the double-basses laid down on their sides, nor adequate to that rich, full breadth of harmony required by such choruses as those from “Elijah, especially the first in C minor, which ends with that sublime Chorale, (the latter, more joyous movement of which, by the way, seemed unnaturally held back to the same slow time with the solemn Chorale.) Much of it sounded hard, crude and heavy; there was a want of swell and diminution and too much of the uniform organ volume without the vanish of tone; also occasional discord, the tenors singing sharp. There was more of true blending and shading in the delivery of the lovely chorus: He watching over Israel. The Trio was coldly, but correctly given. To us the feature of the programme was the Loreley music of Mendelssohn, in which our expectations were not at all disappointed, so far as the music was concerned. It is full of weird and mystical effects, and modulations that almost chill one with the sense of night and the damp Rhine air; a fine blending of the human pathos and the peculiar Mendelssonian fairy element. Some of the soprano and alto choruses were quite well sung; but the solo voice was distressingly sharp throughout, giving the impression that Miss Loreley had really wandered up and down the cold banks of the Rhine in not the best humor, until her spirits and her voice were out of tune. We could not help fancying that all the vocal music would have gained by having the same conductor with the purely orchestral pieces. The Philharmonic Society are preparing ano ther concert, complimentary to their long time April 24. semi-musical people sometimes say of the best works: It is a heavy opera. It is fatiguing by its length; and not only by its length, but through the interruption of its unity and the suspension of its purely musical interest by so much melodramatic pageantry and dancing. Our correspondent was quite right in saying, that with the second act the purely musical interest ends; at all events the musical climax of the whole is passed, and in the last two acts the music becomes secondary to mere spectacle and action. Undoubtedly the composition in the main is fine; there is a great deal of good music in it; the master has employed grander combinations, bolder harmonies and modulations, richer and deeper contrapuntal resources, and built the whole upon a more ambitious and more learned plan, than we could possibly expect from any other Italian writer, unless it were Cherubini. And in its distinctive excellencies Tell' is almost as wide a departure from the Italian school, as Cherubini's But the difference would seem to be that Cherubini found and followed his peculiar genius in that departure, whereas Rossini left his genius behind him. For one feels in listening to the Tell' music, that he is no longer quite at home with the same old genial Rossini; that he is treated here to a novel and surprising display of the mercurial Italian's power, but that he has not the man himself. Here is perhaps the greatest effort that Rossini ever made; he would do more and other than he had done; he felt the limit, the monotony, the almost triviality of what he had so long been doing, although often so felici music. 'William Tell' at the Academy of Music. We have at length heard this last and in one sense 'greatest' of ROSSINI's operas three times. As the music was entirely new to us, (except of course the overture,) the fame thereof so great, and our own expectations great accordingly, the more so that we had always felt a genius in Rossini's works which he had trifled with, but which we understood that he had here set out to work withal in real earnest, we could not trust ourselves to speak from the impressions of a single hearing, distracted and fatigued too as we were. The superb theatre itself was a distraction. Such a blaze of architectural splendor could not but preoccupy the mind continually at the visual rather than the auditory portals. And let us say here at the outset that we were pleased beyond expectation with the Academy. We find its aspect much more pleasing than our Boston Theatre, fond as we are of that. In general form, in tasteful luxury of ornament, and above all, in cheerful color-tously. He had now a new public, a Parisian ing (white and gold,) it satisfies the craving for external, visual harmony, better than any public place we have been in. It is perhaps too brilliant for quiet people in the long run; those clusters of globe lights that spring amid the heavy shrubbery of ornament with which the fronts of all the circles bristle, are somewhat damaging to weak eyes; but the whole effect is really rich, harmonious, genial and cheerful, with or without a brilliant audience. We cannot but think it better than our gloomy, sometimes lurid looking, red walls. Red is defended as the last result of the Parisian experience; but is it necessary to suppose it more than a Paris fashion of to-day, akin to the French love of what is glowing and intense, of melo-dramatic literature, blood and thunder novels, and stunning, brassy music? We mean no disparagement to our own fine theatre; in all save the 'vile red,' it is both elegant, artistic and convenient; this one shall not wean us from it. But this, so far as the eye is concerned, we think the greater architectural triumph;we speak of the theatre proper, and not of the saloons and entrances, in which the Boston Theatre is infinitely superior. So too it is in seating; for it is plain at a glance that a very large proportion of the five thousand seats at the Academy are cut off from a fair view of the stage. And this is partly caused by what is architecturally perhaps the finest feature of the house, those rich Italian palace fronts of the double width of proscenium boxes each side of the stage. Acoustically the theatre is excellent. We are quite sure a Philharmonic concert would sound a thousand times better in it, than at Niblo's. But now for William Tell.' For once, for twice, we found the general impression of the music heavy. We could sympathize with what Grand Opera to write for; he stood where Gluck had once before exposed the shallowness of sentimental Italian song dramas; he felt the greater depth and enduring quality of German music; he had been among the Alps and caught the idea of something vigorous and fresh and vitalized with intellect, with great ideas, in which the musician might find manlier sphere than in the old exhausted sensuous round of southern loves and jealousies and pleasure-seeking. So he went to work to surpass himself and be something more than a melodist, to show that he was able to maintain a place among the graver masters, and to wield like them the multiplex resources of full harmony and instrumental coloring. He has done it, and done it splendidly. But where is the peculiar melodic charm and inspiration of 'the Barber' and his earlier works? Where that spontaneous, ceaseless gush of sparkling, fresh, exquisitely original musical ideas? that still surprising play of a creative musical fancy, that kept squandering pearls upon extempore and unsubstantial dresses? We do not find much of it in the Tell.' We find instead large combinations, crowded harmonies, and vast activity in the orchestral accompaniments, with careful study to fit tones to local and dramatic requirements. In this Rossini has shown what he could do, and increased the world's respect for his great power; but what a pity that he stopped short here and did not keep on until he could be once again himself and perfectly spontaneous in this larger kind of work! The freshest music in this opera is that of the kind called "local," the Alpine horns and echoes, but this is a very simple artifice. We have most of it in the first act, in the pastoral and hunting strains, and fresh, naïve choruses of the &c.; Swiss villagers about Tell's cottage. The music of this act is the most genuine and pleasing of the whole, though that of the second act is greatest. Some of its melodies remind us of the Soirées Musicales. Prominent among its musical contents are the tenor air in which Arnold apostrophizes his Matilda, and in which BOLCIONI used some very telling and effective high notes, and sang very earnestly and with good style, although rather a feeble person for so exacting a rôle; the very expressive music accompanying the pretty scene of the wedding of the three couples; the manly appeals of Tell to Arnold, in which BADIALI sang and acted nobly as he always does, only that he unfortunately looked more like a fierce Italian bandit than the Swiss patriot; the wedding chorus and prayer, and the stormy finale, appealing to heaven for revenge, after Gessler's soldiers have dragged away the old pastor Melchthal. In these the ensemble was larger and better than we have ever had upon the operatic stage, the chorus being very numerous, and the soprano of Madame MARETZEK (Tell's son, Jemmy), taking throughout the prominent part, and with great sweetness and telling purity of voice. It is in the second act that Rossini lays himself out for great effects. The first act had been simply indicative of Swiss life, first in its simplicity and happiness; but its sunshine is crossed with bodeful shadows as often as the hunting horns of the tyrant's crew are heard in the distance, or the anxious mind of Tell in every utterance contrasts the present gayety with the actual wrongs of Switzerland; and ending in scenes of outrage and collision between soldiery and people, so as to put us in possession of all the motives of the play. To that sunny scene of lake and mountains, now succeeds nightfall and the famous vale of Rutli. First a prelude of local coloring;-pastoral strains and village vesper bells from one part alternate with the horns of Gessler and his court returning from the chase. Enter the princess Mathilda (STEFFANONE), who has left this latter party for a meeting with her lover, Arnold. Here we have a fine, love-fraught solo, which Steffanone, when she is not hoarse, sings in the richest and most luscious tones and with the truest feeling. Arnold enters to take his leave of her, thinking by flight to distant parts and death sull' campo della gloria, to escape the struggle between such a love and duty to his groaning country. Here of course a lovers' passionate duet. Tell and Walter (COLETTI) approach and Mathilda retires-not to appear again except for a moment, in the way of special providence, to rescue Tell's son after the apple shooting scene. The two patriots inform Arnold Melchthal of the arrest and murder of his father, which appeal of course makes him entirely theirs, and here we have the famous Trio, which is perhaps the finest piece of music in the play, and fully up to such a situation. Then comes the rendezvous of the men of the three cantons, each entering singly, and in its turn exhorted by the leaders, till the mass accumulates to a mighty ensemble; and then the oath and the grand chorus of revenge and liberty. The whole act is one superb crescendo of effects, ending with a grand climax; and it was well executed, save that MARETZEK is prone to lash up his orchestra too furiously. The real musical interest of the piece has now passed its height, and the audience have heard and seen and been excited quite as much as can be good for anybody in a single evening. The third act is dance and pageantry. Scene, the square in the village of Altdorf and the fair, where the villagers have to bow before the cap of Gessler. The dancing was stupid enough, except the ballet by a pretty company of girl soldiers, fantastically introduced, for what motive it was hard to see. The shooting of the apple on the boy's head, the arrest of Tell and the boy, and the claiming of the latter by Mathilda, who secretly favors the patriots, end this act. The fourth act has two scenes: the first in a cottage, where Arnold pours out his soul in a great tenor song, full of heroic resolution, and where he has again need, as in the first act, of the powerful high C from the chest (l'ut de poitrine), which made DUPREZ so famous. If Bolcioni transposed this half a tone, he nevertheless gave the air with a great deal of vigor, although his voice showed signs of fatigue after so much exertion. For ourselves, we did not go to hear the ut de poitrine, nor, if we had heard it, is it probable that we should have celebrated that as the event in hearing "William Tell." The finale is melodramatic to a degree; a wonderfully well managed storm upon the lake, where Tell leaps from the boat, sends an arrow to the tyrant's heart, and Switzerland is free! We really retain little or no impression of the music of all this; it was swallowed up in spectacle. How different from the finale to Don Juan! There too is spectacle; but the soul and meaning of it haunt you ever after in the music. Rossini, the musician, seems to have grown weary of his Prospero's wand, and if he did not break it, to have trifled with it from the middle of his work. Yet "William Tell" is not without the elements of greatness. It showed Rossini's power to step out of his own habits, to surpass himself; it proved him a great musician. We cannot think it can ever be one of the very popular operas; it is too long, too crowded, too destitute of musical unity and progress after the second act; and it lacks the enlivening charm of even one very prominent female character. Steffanone's part is pretty much all limited to just one scene. In the character of the music we were disappointed in finding it, if less after the usual pattern of Italian song operas, yet not so German as we had always heard it stated. It seems rather French, and like a precursor of those great orchestral, effect operas of MEYERBEER. Then again we were continually struck by effects, particularly in the male choruses, which palpably anticipated certain peculiarities of his Italian successors, of DONIZETTI and of VERDI. "Tell" has drawn crowded audiences almost uniformly now for seven nights, and will be performed two nights more. On Monday it will give way to VERDI's Il Trovatore. Madame DE LA GRANGE, (Ullman's new card) has also been announced for Monday at Niblo's, although she has not yet arrived. Her company is to consist❘ of PARODI, well-known here of old; of Sig. MIRATI, said to be the best tenor in Italy, Sig. Morelli, baritone, &c., &c. Our readers have already smiled over the funny shrewdness and presumption of the manager's card. The German opera came to an un-German end with "Romeo and Juliet;" but there was success enough to encourage a hope that New York may ere long have a permanent German opera of the higher order, in which Fidelio and Iphigenia in Aulis may be worthily performed. Certainly this German population of at least 150,000, with all the other lovers of German music, should be quite adequate to the support of such an institution. J. S. D. MUSICAL FUND SOCIETY.-The Concert of this Society, on Saturday last, was attended by a large audience, though not so large as we had expected to see on the occasion of the last orchestral concert of the season. The manuscript overture by Mr. J. C. D. PARKER stood first on the programme, and was conducted by the young composer himself. It made upon the audience a very favorable impression, and not less so, we think, upon musicians and critics. It opened with a slow movement, in which the reed instruments and horns predominated and were treated with most excellent effect; but it appeared to us that the strings were not used with so good effect, seeming at times a littte thin and weak. The overture, generally, gave much satisfaction; the instrumentation being full and rich; and the themes, without being strikingly original, were yet not uninteresting or trivial. On the whole, we thought the composition one likely to be satisfactory to musicians as a promising result of faithful study, rather than what would be found popular by a miscellaneous audience. It was throughout most attentively listened to, enjoyed and heartily applauded, and its reception could not but have been most gratifying to the composer, who most efficiently conducted the orchestra, which, in its turn, seemed to spare no effort to give to the new work all its best effects. Mr. SATTER gave the E flat Concerto of Beethoven in a manner which gave general satisfaction, although it would be impossible to satisfy the various conceptions of more learned critics who are thoroughly familiar with the composition.Every one has his own idea of the manner in which such a work should be played, and will not be content with anything that falls in any way short of that ideal. Mr. Satter, on this occasion, appeared for the first time before one of our large audiences, and, both in the concerto and in the wonderful Liszt fantasias on Don Giovanni and Lucia, made a great impression as a pianist of remarkable and varied talent, and that too, on hearers who, familiar with many pianists of acknowledged excellence, are not a little critical and strict in their requirements. He was much applauded, and gave, in acknowledgment of his recall, the beautiful minuet of Mozart, familiar to those who have attended his concerts. We could not but wish that some of the enthusiastic applauders of Saturday evening had attended the delightful Soirées at Chickering's. Mrs. J. H. LONG sang the famous cavatina from Linda di Chamounix, Oh luce di quest' anima, with full orchestral accompaniment, with brilliant success. Mrs. Long is one of the best, perhaps, the best of our native singers; with considerable natural powers, she has acquired, under Signor CORELLI, a pure style of Italian singing, which, in the concert-room, is exceedingly effective; her execution and vocalization are good, though not faultless; she has sufficient passion to give much life and spirit to her performance. In the Second Part of the Concert, she gave Qui la voce with equal success; and, in acknowledgement of the enthusiastic encore that rewarded her efforts, sang 1 Mrs. ROSA GARCIA DE RIBAS, who in past seasons has given much pleasure to the Academy and Musical Fund audiences, and is always ready to aid in good works, sang an aria composed by Maretzek, we think, for Steffanone, but which wanted all the voice and style of Steffanone to make it tolerable. It was not within Signora Ribas' capacity, and seemed to us an unfortunate selection. The trumpet duo of Messrs. HEINICKE and PINTER was well performed with accompaniment of the full orchestra, and was much applauded. The overture to Semiramide was played in very fine style by the orchestra, and closed the concert; but, with the recollections of the opera still fresh, it seemed as if the curtain should rise and the entertainment should commence with this, rather than to give it as the signal for cloaking and bonneting, and as intimation that the entertainment had come to an end. The Concert was a most successful and pleasing one, and we hope was not without its good effect on the finances of the Musical Fund Society, who should not be discouraged from renewed efforts in another season. The excellence of the orchestra, infinitely beyond any permanent organization that has ever been heard in Boston, is acknowledged on all hands, and we are confident that the tide of fortune will assuredly take a favorable turn in another year, and bring a well deserved and substantial reward. English Opera. The opera troupe at the Boston Theatre have sung every night this week, giving the 'Beggar's Opera' on Monday, ' Cinderella' on Tuesday and Thursday, and La Sonnambula' on Wednesday. Of all these we have spoken before. The representation of La Sonnambula' we did not hear, but learn from other sources that it was a remarkably good performance; and that Mr. HARRISON proved more than usually acceptable to his hearers. For Friday Guy Mannering' was announced, but this of course is too late for notice in our columns. Miss LOUISA PYNE has made a most decided impression and there is but one opinion as to her remarkable merits as a vocalist. English opera put upon the stage as this has been should surely be popular, and we wonder not a little not to see really crowded houses. We omitted, in our notice of Cinderella' last week, to speak of a chorus behind the scenes, which was very noticeable for its excellence in time and tune, being, we think, the only one we ever heard that we could listen to with even a tolerable satisfaction. The phenomenon is so rare a one that we are at a loss to account for it, and would by no means fail to notice it. We are unable to state how long the opera troupe will remain, nor what operas will be given in the remainder of their engagement. This afternoon, Cinderella' is repeated. the German and French musical journals with its These excellent extracts are set off like precious The London Musical World is an able and honest throw away money merely for the sake of gratifying the public and giving employment to some three hundred artists and supernumeraries. According to Mr. Phalen's statement, either the Stabat or Il Trovatore must be withdrawn; and as the latter is regarded by the management as the great card of the seaseon, it was decided to shelve the sacred and go ahead with the secular opera. THE MASSACHUSETTS MUSICAL JOURNAL. We have received the prospectus and first number of a new musical paper with this title. It is the successor of "The Key-Note," and is published in Fall River by EBEN TOURJEE, in connection with Messrs. A. N. JOHNSON, E. H. FROST and J. R. MILLER of Boston. It is a well printed paper, published semi-monthly at one dollar per annum. Advertisements. sheet truly; fearless, too especially in its appropri-JOB PRINTING neatly and promptly executed at this Office. L. O. EMERSON, ORGANIST AND DIRECTOR OF MUSIC AT Music Room under the Church...... Residence, 12 Indiana Pl. Applications may also be made at Oliver Ditson's, 115 Wash- ations of the labors of others. It has given our ori- MR. FRY'S STABAT MATER.-Quite a controversy is going on in the New York papers between Mr. Fry and Mr. Phalen, the President of the Academy of Music, in regard to the non-production of a Stabat Mater composed by Mr. Fry. The facts we find concisely stated as follows, in the Tribune, giving, it seems to us, a fair statement of the position of the parties on the question : Dramatic and operatic controversies are matters that do not often gain a place in these columns; but there are one or two points in the discussion between Mr. W. H. Fry and the Management of the Academy of Music, of which we to-day publish anIt other installment, that invite emphatic comment. seems to be established that the Management undertook to produce a new manuscript Oratorio by that gentleman, requiring the entire force of the opera company, with a large additional chorus, and that they promised to have it carefully rehearsed. But after a few partial rehearsals, on the author's declaration that these were not sufficient, and that the performers were not yet sufficiently acquainted with the work to do justice to it or to themselves before the public, the Management broke off the undertaking, and determined not to produce the Oratorio. In justification of this breach of contract, they allege that, in order to continue the rehearsals, they must have postponed a new opera they are preparing, which might have endangered the pecuniary success of the establishments; and also that, when they agreed to bring out Mr. Fry's Oratorio, they were under the belief that only two general rehearsals would be required. The Evening Mirror says: The explanation of the munagement seems to justify the alternative they adopted on purely business grounds. the frequent rehearsals required by the Composer (and we do not blame him for his unwillingness to have his work mangled in the production) interfered with the regular operatic performances, and even perilled the success of the establishment. The Directors have been at great expense in getting up "William Tell" and "Il Trovatore;" and while they have no prospect or expectation of making anything out of the opera, they are not willing to acter, with good business attainments, wishes to obtain a situation in a Music Store; has had an extensive experience in the Piano and Melodeon trade, is an excellent tuner and repairer, and can influence some trade Wages not so much an object, as an opportunity to obtain a thorough knowledge of the business. Address "MUSICIAN," at this Office. ORGANISTA situation wanted as Organist in some church in Boston, by a gentleman who has had a number of years' experience. The best of references as to qualifications can be given. Address "ORGANIST," Box 186, Worcester, Mass. I' L TROVATORE...." Stride la Vampa," VERDI. GEORGE P. REED & CO. For Piano-Forte playing. By LOUIS PLAIDY, Teacher in the Conservatory of Music at Leipsic. Translated from the German, by J. Č. D. PARKER. Price $2. THE VOCALIST'S COMPANION: Or Exercises for developing, strengthening and equalizing the Voice. Designed as introductory to and to be used in connection with the celebrated Solfeggio Exercises of Panseron, Crivelli, Lablache and others. By EDWARD B. OLIVER. Price 75 cents Published by Oliver Ditson, 115 Washington St. THOMAS RYAN, TEACHER OF MUSIC, RESIDENCE, No. 15 DIX PLACE. OTTO DRESEL CARL HAUSE, of Piano playing. Mr H. may be addressed at the music stores of NATHAN RICHARDSON, 282 Washington St. or G. P. REED & Co. 17 Tremont Row. REFERENCES:-Mrs. C. W. Loring, 38 Mt. Vernon St. F. F. MÜLLER, Feb. 18. DIRECTOR OF MUSIC AND ORGANIST at the Old South NEW AESTHETIC JOURNAL. THE CRAYON, A Weekly Paper devoted to ART, offers itself to the attention of all who are interested in the elevating and refining influences of Beauty. Among the contributors to THE CRAYON already are BRYANT, LOWELL, STREET, REMBRANDT PEALE, A. B. DURAND, President of the National Academy of Design, DANIEL HUNTINGTON, HENRY K. BROWN, and amongst those engaged are LONGFELLOW, BAYARD TAYLOR, GEO. WM CURTIS, Rev. H. W. BEECHER, Rev. SAMUEL OsoooD, Rev. H. W. BELLOWS, Hon. CHARLES SUMNER, and others of our most eminent writers. A series of papers by RUSKIN, and essays left by the eminent sculptor, HORATIO GREENOUGH, add to the interest of The Crayon. From the Christian Inquirer. The first five numbers of this promising (and thus far performing) paper are now out. We look for its weekly issue with high and never disappointed expectation. Its leaders are leaded in a double sense-weighty with thought as well as with typographical distinctness. They carry metal. We are much impressed with the seriousness and instructive aim of the editorial columns. Manifestly it is not to tickle the ear or please the fancy, but to enlighten the mind and improve the taste, that the leading article always aims. The writer has a real, well-considered, distinct, and decisive thought to convey to his readers' minds, and he goes about it patiently, unambitiously, and earnestly, and succeeds not in winning our admiration-a poor victory-but in leaving us wiser than he found us. The Crayon has, we hope, a special mission-to purge and soberize the style of our journalizing, as well as the taste of our people in general. The heated, gaseous, and scintillating style of our public press is becoming intolerable. The Crayon uses a cool, quiet and unobtrusive style, which is truly refreshing. From the Cincinnati Gazette. We have already strongly recommended THE CRAYON, and every succeeding number proves it to be more and more worthy of all we have said in its praise. No journal, devoted to Art, has ever been so ably conducted, in this country; and if it meets with the support it so richly deserves, we have no doubt that it will exert a most wholesome influence upon the taste of the country. Published by STILLMAN & DURAND, No. 237 Broadway, New York. Terms, $8 per annum, in advance. Back numbers supplied. C. H. CLARKE, TEACHER OF MUSIC, 259 Washington St. RESIDENCE....13 SHAWMUT STREET, BOSTON. W. J. PARKERSON, NO. 3 LA GRANGE PLACE, BOSTON. Having resided thirteen years in Europe with a view of adapting the Italian style of Singing to the English voice, and of remedying weakness of the voice, and thoroughly correcting harsh, guttural, nasal, or other unpleasant peculiarities, proposes to give lessons on the Voice, and in Singing, in the Italian French, and English Languages. Many who have spent years of severe study to attain musical excellence, after struggling to conquer some guttural, nasal, or other unpleasant mannerism, abandon the pursuit from the belief that they are afflicted with a natural defectiveness: when, with a fractional part of the application which they bestow on the other branches of their musical education, and with much less physical effort (if properly directed) than they have been accustomed to use, their voices might be rendered comparatively beautiful. SUPERIOR TO ALL. LIGHTE, NEWTON & BRADBURY'S PIANOS. NATHAN RICHARDSON Would respectfully inform the public that he has taken the Agency for the New England States, for the sale of the above celebrated instruments, a full assortment of which will constantly be kept at his MUSICAL EXCHANGE, 282 Washington Street, Boston. These Instruments are warranted in all cases, and put up in secure boxes, free of expense, for transportation to any distance.- -Also, NEW MUSIC from all parts of Europe and America received as soon as published, which, together with our own publications, forms the largest stock and greatest variety of Sheet Music to be found in the United States. The most liberal discount made to the Trade and Seminaries. Catalogues sent to any address, gratis.-Superior MELODEONS always on hand.-PIANOS TO LET, on liberal terms. MR. HARRISON MILLARD, (TENORE,) TEACHER OF ITALIAN VOCALIZATION, No. 6 Tyler St.........Terms $50 per quarter. HEWS' PATENT AMERICAN ACTION PIANO-FORTE, Manufactory, 379 Washington Street, YOUNG LADIES' VOCAL MUSIC SCHOOL. E. R. BLANCHARD, Teacher. This School is designed for those who wish to acquire the MODEL MELODEONS TH MANUFACTURED BY MASON & HAMLIN. HE attention of the musical public is invited to the newly improved MODEL MELODEONS made by us. 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GARTNER and JUNGNICKEL are &c. for violin and piano) for private parties. Catalogues sent gratis by mail. ability to read music readily at sight, and is particularly adapt. A ready to receive applications to furnish music (dubs, tror, IF you wish to learn to play in the shortest time possible, buy RICHARDSON'S To singers of eminence he would say, with a just appreciation MODERN SCHOOL FOR THE PIANO-FORTE, of their high attainments, that a brief practical examination of his system will convince the most sceptical, that he can afford them such assistance in beautifying the voice, as might delight the most fastidious. "Being acquainted with the course of vocal discipline pursued by Mr. W. J. PARKERSON in forming and developing the voice, I take pleasure in bearing my testimony to its excellence; believing it to be far preferable to any other method known to me. GEO. J. WEBB. BOSTON, OCT. 7, 1854." Nov 18 A GOOD TIME TO SUBSCRIBE! DWIGHT'S JOURNAL OF MUSIC, A Paper of Art and Literature, Published every Saturday, at 21 School St. Boston. Two Dollars per annum, in advance. During the three years since it was established, this Journal has met with continually increasing favor, and it entered upon its SEVENTH VOLUME with the number for Saturday, April 7th. Its contents relate mainly to the Art of Music, but with glances at the whole World of Art and of Polite Literature; including, from time to time-1. Critical Reviews of Concerts, Oratorios, Operas; with timely Analyses of the notable Works performed, accounts of their Composers, &e. 2. Notices of New Music. 3. Musical News from all parts. 4. Correspondence from musical persons and places. 5. Essays on musical styles, schools, periods, authors, compositions, instruments, theories; on Musical Education; on Music in its Church, the Concert-room, the Theatre, the Chamber, and the Street, &c. 6. 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Payments required in advance: for yearly advertisements, quarterly in advance. No. 21 SCHOOL STREET. WHOLE NO. 161. A Paper of Art and Literature. BOSTON, SATURDAY, MAY 5, 1855. cuffs the ears of the kettle drums, by way of pre VOL. VII. No. 5. nets, 4; bassoons, 4; horns, 4; trumpets, 2; Dwight's Journal of Music, lude, all claim my sympathy and tender regard. trombones, 3; ophicleide, 1; tympani, cymbals, PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. TERMS: By Mail, $2 per annum, in advance. When left by Carrier, $2,50 66 THE CONCERT SEASON IN LONDON-PERFORMANCES OF THE SACRED HARMONIC AND THE NEW PHILHARMONIC SOCIETIES IN EXETER HALL-CHARITY CHILDREN'S CONCERT IN ST. PAUL'S. However familiar with the fact, it cannot but seem to an American, on his first visit to England, a somewhat curious and incongruous custom to enter upon the gayeties of the metropolis with the advent of Summer. At the time when, at home, all thoughts of concerts are banished, and they who can are escaping to the coolness of the seashore, there, inversely, the multitude rush into the seething vortex of the town. Happily the physical infirmities of the sky are such as, at all times effectually to interpose a veil betwixt the earth and the fires of the Summer sun. As for the rest, one can well put up with the inconveniences of the climate and the sooty air, in the rare enjoyment of such music as is daily and nightly offered by one or another of the various association for which London is so famous. I was just in time for the best of them. The announcement of the "Creation," to be performed at Exeter Hall by the Sacred Harmonic Society, on the evening after my arrival, seemed a particular good fortune. I was early in my seat, for, in a new place, I must needs be in time to lose nothing. The sundry little preliminaries of the players are not without their interest. The busy individuals who glide in through sidedoors, bent beneath piles of books, which they throw down upon the stage as if armfuls of wood -the half dozen nervous gentlemen who seem to doubt the ability of the double-basses to keep in tune till the concert begins, and the dapper little man with a shiny bald head who incessantly At length the inrushing of the chorus and orchestra and the bustle of immediate preparation find me in the full mood for enjoyment. Oratorio is undoubtedly better understood and performed in London than anywhere else. The band and chorus on this occasion numbered some 700, and was conducted by the infallible Costa. There was a unity and ease in the movement of this vast force, combined with such completeness of detail as implied a full comprehension on the part of all, of the subject and its treatment, and which put the audience at once at their ease, and in a frame most fit to feel the power and grandeur of the music. Here, too, one's enthusiasm is wrought up to that degree that he will acknowledge the fidelity and force of the descriptive passages with which, in its instrumentation, this great work abounds. Most manifestly is the tread of wild beasts heard in the forests; and, not less plainly, the lowing of kine and hum of insects in the meadows. So, too, one is almost impressed with the belief that he sees, not to say hears, in the still night the rising of the moon, with such delicacy is the meaning of the enthusiastic composer interpreted by the instruments. But it is in the effect of the full chorus that the excellence of material and the discipline and drill of this Society appear. I am one of those who think numbers are essential to the effectual rendering of the great works in Symphony and Oratorio. I am aware there is a question on this point. With us, indeed, the difficulty of obtaining material of the right sort in sufficient force, might well lead to doubt. But compare the meagre effects of a half-appointed band, however excellent, in any of the works of acknowledged greatness, with that produced by the London societies, and the difference will at once be felt. In the latter we notice a satisfactory fullness and opulence, which depends not so much upon an increase of force as on the volume of sound produced, and, at the same time, properly controlled. And this is as evident in the most delicate pianissimo passages, as when a torrent of sound is let loose on a sforzando. In the orchestra proper, an abundance of strings tends to subdue the rage so inherent in the brass, while they stand ready, when required, to swell the power of the whole band. This leads me to remark upon a performance of the New Philharmonic Society, which occurred a few evenings subsequent to that I have just described, and in the same place. The construction of this orchestra is as follows, viz: 1st violins, 24; 2d do. 20; violas, 14; violoncellos 14; bassos, 14; harps, 3; flutes, 4; oboes, 4; clari et cetera. Here it will be seen are eighty-six strings. This is given out to be the largest concert orchestra in Europe. The programme (I find by my memoranda), on the night I was present, comprised LINDPAINTNER'S Cantata, the "Widow of Nain;" the "Jupiter" Symphony; MACFARREN'S overture (Don Carlos), Der Freyschütz, and MENDELSSOHN'S First "Walpurgis Night." It ill becomes me to attempt a criticism of these performances, after the manner of the critics, and after so long a time. It has been my custom, however, on occasions like this, to note down my impressions at the time, and from them I now quote. The Cantata was not satisfactory, though it was conducted by Lindpaintner himself, and it is to be supposed, therefore, was rendered with truth and fidelity. Perhaps it is impossible to follow in the path so thoroughly trodden by the master spirits of Oratorio and not imitate their style and borrow unconsciously their thoughts. Be this true or not, I could not rid myself of the idea that the choruses, in this work, which are its most effective parts, are better done (the spirit of them at any rate) in the "Mount of Olives," and the Oratorios of HANDEL. In the "Jupiter" Symphony, the training of the orchestra under Costa was abundantly manifest. The difficult passages in the first movement were taken with unerring accuracy. In the Andante the nice gradations of light and shadow, on the just observance of which its peculiar beauty depends, seemed thoroughly appreciated by all. There seemed to exist on the part of the instruments of every class a courteous deference of each to the other. There was no undue ambition of the strings to outshine the wood, or of the brass to overpower all. Resulting from this was that perfect fusion and commingling of each component part that together produced the grand and beautiful whole. In the brilliant but most difficult Finale, the precision was that of a single instrument. The First Walpurgis Nacht is one of the most strange of Goethe's singularly wild fancies. It is largely imbued with those unnatural superstitions that so much delight the German mind. Mendelssohn, of all others, can best interpret the eccentric genius of this poet. In the present instance he seems to have surpassed himself. The music is, in the highest degree, descriptive as well as imaginative, portraying vividly the spirit of the verse. It was exceedingly well rendered by both voices and instruments, the lights and shadows with which the music abounds, being as clearly defined as colors on Imagine the impetuosity of the chorus of 600 let canvas. |