318 THE MUSICIAN ABOUT TOWN. 



an accurate knowledge of his author's intention, with an exquisite 

 taste in expressing it. " The Isles of Fingal" will be more fully 

 appreciated, as the poetry of the design, with the composer's mean- 

 ing, become known. It will then be classed among the greatest 

 efforts of musical description and painting. 



The novelties at the third concert were Spohr's symphony in (' 

 minor, No. 3; (No. 2 of Mozart opened the evening's performance) 

 Moscheles concerto pathetique ; and Beethoven's overture to " Co- 

 riolan." The first movement of Spohr's work is elaborate, with, we 

 think, too apparent a display of learning : the andante, delicious in 

 its subject, is in the instrumental treatment one of the most lovely 

 specimens of orchestral writing that we could refer to. The finale, 

 although worked in the most close and masterly way, will perforce 

 remind every hearer of the last movement in Beethoven's D major. 

 With all his mannerism and self-repetitions, Spohr ever and anon 

 makes so direct an appeal to one's sympathies, that we feel disposed 

 to throw all his egotism into the back gronnd. Moscheles' concerto, 

 one of immense difficulty, did not impress us with the idea of the 

 author's proposed design ; its general character bearing little of the 

 " pathetic" either in subject or detail. We speak from a single 

 hearing, and under other disadvantages. Moreover, the composer 

 must have been dissatisfied with his own performance, for his instru- 

 ment seemed but sluggishly to answer his fingers. Beethoven's 

 overture to " Coriolan" is a rousing and noble composition. Every 

 bar of it contains proof of the energetic, self-willed, Pindaric imagi- 

 nation of that wonderful writer. It was played as the Philharmonic 

 band ought to play such a production. 



The fourth concert was signalized by the second performance of 

 Beethoven's choral symphony, or " Sinfonie caracteristique ;" the 

 first having taken place only last year ; for the attempt made in 

 1825, aud which we witnessed, should, if possible, be blotted out of 

 the Philharmonic records. Every thing was against it. The band 

 had not had sufficient rehearsals, (and they should have had twenty) 

 and some of the grave authorities in the profession, who judged of 

 the author's design through a miserable rehearsal or two, pronounc- 

 ed the whole work to be an eminent specimen of " the aberrations 

 of a great mind." Till the last year, therefore, it had been thrown 

 aside, and would, in all probability, have been to this hour classed 

 with the other miscalculations of wild and irregular geniuses. The 

 directors of these concerts, we firmly believe, would not have at- 

 tempted its resurrection had it not been for the unremitted enquiries, 

 demands, and goadings of several distinguished amateurs, assisted 



