BIRMINGHAM MUSICAL FESTIVAL. 219 



exception of the Messiah, we seek in vain for the splendid manifes- 

 tations of genius which have from time to time appeared ahove the 

 musical horizon. For what purpose do we attend musical festivals ? 

 Surely not merely to listen to the symphonious accordance of num- 

 berless instruments : if so, why ridicule the taste of the Turk who 

 thought the tuning the best part of the concert ? Neither is it to 

 lower our standard of excellence by listening to works of second and 

 third rate merit, when we might be drinking in with our ravished 

 ears the highest productions of genius. Is it not, rather, for the 

 opportunity they afford of holding communion with minds superior 

 to our own — minds so pure, so exalted, so imbued with the spirit of 

 poetry, that, to use the expression of Sir J. Reynolds, " we feel a 

 kind of self-congratulation in knowing that we are capable of the 

 feelings which they are intended to excite ?" But when we com- 

 mence the descent — when we begin to allow common mortals to 

 appear heroes in our estimation, we shall find ourselves, ere long, 

 groveling in the regions of mediocrity, and regarding with astonish- 

 ment the performance of pigmies. Onwards and upwards should be 

 our motto; supei'lative, not comparative, excellence our desire. Such 

 considerations would appear to have had no influence with the direc- 

 tors of the Birmingham festival : their aspirations seem to have been 

 after novelty, not after excellence. With regard to the Ascension, it 

 might have been supposed that the fate of David would have operated 

 as a sufficient warning against ever again admitting an oratorio by 

 Neukomm, even to those utterly incapable of forming a correct 

 estimate of the work from their own judgment. In bringing for- 

 ward the Triumph of Faith, had the occasion been less serious, one 

 might have imagined that the directors had been desirous of playing 

 off a joke upon both the performers and the audience. 



Upon works such as these, detailed criticism is thrown away, for 

 no one will read an analysis of what no one admires, and the beau- 

 ties are too few, the defects too numerous to render the task either 

 pleasing or profitable. Let us speak, then, of Mendelssohn's St. 

 Paul, which, in the absence of a greater work, may be regarded as 

 the principal feature of the festival. This oratorio has been likened 

 by some critics to those of Handel ; by others, equally without rea- 

 son, to the sacred works of Sebastian Bach. With neither of these 

 great men has Mendelssohn, so far as we can perceive, much simi- 

 larity, either as regards the grandeur and originality of their con- 

 ceptions, or the mode of carrying those conceptions out The gene- 

 ral characteristic of Handel's style is massive simple grandeur. In- 

 stead of employing a number of smaller impressions to produce one 



VOL. VII., NO. XXII. PF 



