500 THE MUSICIAN ABOUT TOWN. 
tone ; an accurate intonation; a facility in reading; and a self- 
possessed, but modest, unpretending, deportment. To all these 
qualities might be added, a handsome exterior; but ‘“ Favour is 
deceitful, and beauty is vain,” says the roya) aphorist. 
Mr. Moscheles, by these classical performances, is rendering good 
service to the cause of sterling music. By placing before the rising 
generation the various styles of the great writers in all schools, an- 
cient and modern, they will be led to appreciate the good and solid 
by comparing it with the merely showy and difficult. 
Since our last report of “‘The Sacred Harmonic Society’s” pro- 
ceedings, they have twice performed the “ Messiah ;” twice the “Is- 
rael in Egypt ;” and on the Ist of March Mendelssohn’s “St. Paul.” 
The last oratorio is evidently gaining more and more the public es- 
timation ; several of the movements were encored upon the present 
occasion, and the last chorus was followed by a universal burst 
of acclamation from an audience that completely filled the hall. 
The oftener we hear this magnificent work, the more we feel that 
it isa class of music calculated perceptibly to arrest both the judg- 
ment and the sympathy of the listener, and at each successive hear- 
ing to dilate and confirm those feelings: this, at all events, has 
been our own case. We have now been present at three public per- 
formances of the whole oratorio ; and we came away more impressed 
with the magnitude of its design, the majestic beauty and variety of 
its chorusses, and the profound skill and elegance of its instrumental 
score. The solo singers upon this occasion were the Misses Birch, 
Cawthorne, and Wyndham: Messrs. Bennett, Hobbs, Alfred No- 
vello, Green, and H. Phillips. Mr. Surman, the conductor, took 
several of the chorusses too fast ; nota common fault with him, but 
an injurious one, more especially in conducting a large body of 
voices ; for it is more easy to urge on, than to pull back, a multi- 
tude of performers. In several of the movements, too, we noticed 
that whole passages, and important ones, for the bassoon, were 
omitted. The principal flute, also, was continually incorrect ; and 
in that sweet chorus, “O be gracious, ye immortals!” we did not 
hear the flute at all, and yet in this movement it forms a beautiful 
feature in the score. 
As this society has now attained, and is still increasing in, influ- 
ence and importance, we would suggest two or three points by 
which their performances would be materially improved and 
strengthened. In the first place, we understand that they will very 
shortly have a new organ of their own. Mr. Walker will, we hope, 
do them justice and himself credit. With the new instrument the 
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