246 
MUSIC ABROAD. 
[Nature and Art, December 1, 1866. 
turns occasionally to the rescue of the hitherto much neg- 
lected Franz Schubert. A notable instance of this service 
to the cause of good music was the production of an entr’ acte 
in B Minor, another in B flat Major, and a romance for 
mezzo-soprano, from the music to the drama of Rosamunde. 
Mdlle. Enequist (who made her debut in England at the 
winter concerts some seasons back) sang the romance, which 
was encored. Anything more gracefully and tenderly melo- 
dious than the second of these entr’ aetes was never imagined, 
and the three pieces were received with enthusiastic expres- 
sions of applause not often indulged in by the undemonstra- 
tive visitors. For Rosamunde, Schubert also wrote three 
choruses and some ballet music, but it is unfortunately lost. 
The winter concerts are as essentially instrumental, and 
valuable schools of art, as those held in the transept during 
the summer months are essentially vocal, and unserviceable, 
except to form a point of concentration for a crowd of ex- 
travagantly-dressed people, who care not what they hear, so 
that they find themselves before the fashionable sing'ers of 
the season. The winter concerts are for students, amateurs, 
and those to whom music is an absorbing delight ; and the 
summer meetings suit to perfection others with whom music 
aforesaid is a mere fashion and a preliminary to that extra- 
ordinary institution, the Promenade. The orchestra of the 
Crystal Palace is faultless, and this season has been con- 
siderably augmented. The present series commenced on 
October 6th. 
Mr. Arthur Chappell finds St. James’s Hall a counterpart 
of that productive field described, in the juvenile legend, 
as “ Tom Tiddler’s Ground.” He commenced that satis- 
factory employment of picking up gold and silver on 
November 5th, the first night of the Monday Popular Con- 
certs, ninth season. Herr Straus, Herr Louis Ries, Mr. 
H. Blagrove, and Signor Piatti, formed the quartet party. 
Madame Arabella Goddard was the pianiste, and Mr. Santley 
the vocalist. Herr Straus (who was heard for the first time 
at the Crystal Palace Concerts) played Bach’s Prelude, and 
Fugue in G Minor. 
At Covent Garden, Mr. Alfred Mellon, after nobly uphold- 
ing the banner of legitimacy, has condescended to hoist the 
flaunting' rag- of “sensation.” Many have hitherto looked 
upon the English conductor as one who did his best to stem 
this torrent which overwhelms music as well as the drama ; 
and such persons will assuredly regret he did not continue 
the struggle. 
This may or may not have been the first time such effects 
were allied to high-class music ; but the exhibition made on 
the singularly appropriate evening of Guy Eawkes-day was 
not complimentary to Weber and his Ber Freischutz. The 
first surprise awaiting the public was a programme made 
out in orthodox theatrical form, as follows : — Zamiel by 
Mr. Winterbottom ; Caspar by Mr. Hughes ; Rodolph by Mr. 
Reynolds ; Evil Spirits by Messrs. Hawkes, Antoine, and 
W. Winterbottom ; Phantom Stags by the band of the Cold- 
stream Guards ; Charmed Bullets by Mr. Horton ; Distant 
Thunder, &c. &c., by Mr. Seymour. This “ good cast for a 
piece,” as the facetious Barnard hath it, was, however, in- 
complete. Why not Agatha, Mr. Brown, and Anna, Mr. 
Jones ? The programme-framer judiciously stopped when 
he came to the ladies ; but this is as much of a compromise 
as most sensational contrivances ; for “ Softly sighs the voice 
of evening,” and “ If a youth,” are both sung by female 
characters in the opera, and are both played by masculines 
in the orchestra. As the incantation approaches, a bell is 
heard “ behind the arras,” like the groan of the perforated 
Polonius ; and an invisible Mellonian minion turns down 
the gas throughout the theatre. The blood of the audience 
does not, however, run cold enough yet, and to honour Weber 
still further, a scientific Jupiter in the orchestra dispenses 
magnesium lightning, which turns Mr. Mellon, Rodolph, 
Caspar, Zamiel, Messieurs the Evil Spirits and Phantom 
Stags, the bullets, and, strange to say, the thunder, quite 
blue. The gaslight, and with it confidence among the 
audience, is eventually restored, as the Huntsman’s Chorus 
concludes this selection — extremely well put together by 
Mr. Mellon, but rendered amazingly absurd by such em- 
bellishments. The power which is, or those that be, may 
possibly feel inclined to accept suggestions for the further- 
ance of “ realism” misapplied to operatic selections. Why 
not have had the soloists down in the front, and in costume ? 
Mr. Winterbottom as Zamiel, crimson to the bassoon ; Mr. 
Hughes as Caspar, in his shirt sleeves and forester’s tights ; 
the Phantom Stags in property antlers, instead of Coldstream 
shakos ; Mr. Brown as Agatha, in petticoats and long- 
plaited back hair, and Mr. Jones as Anna, similarly adorned ? 
Mr. Mellon has done much — very much — for good music in 
his “ classical nights ” throughout the season, and has 
worked hard to deserve public support ; but this is an ex- 
periment he will not surely repeat. Let us hope the 
Phcenix will not rise next season from the ashes of that 
sensational bonfire lighted at Covent Garden on the 5tli of 
November. Mdlle. Carlotta Patti left the theatre on the 
3rd of the month, and is gone haply to show provincials or 
foreigners how to sing English ballads. What was meant 
by the ruminative scream commencing the second verse of 
Mr. Mellon’s unfortunate composition, “Cupid’s eyes,” 
posterity must determine. Until the mystery is explained, 
those who are not idiotic enough to applaud what looks like 
a miserable, senseless, inartistic trick, may question the 
propriety of any such devices. Mdlle. Fanny Jervis, a 
young pianiste of most refined taste, and with the specialty 
of a delightfully liquid touch, made a most promising first 
appearance on Monday, the 1st of October. 
The enterprising Mr. Mapleson, so say several of rumour’s 
tongues, has bought his way into the vacant space where 
Miss Linwood’s Leicester-square Gallery once stood. He 
is supposed to contemplate building a theatre which shall 
cost .£100, 000, and is supposed, moreover, to have secured 
the services of Mr. E. A. Solomons, architect of the New 
Prince of Wales’s Theatre at Liverpool, and the Prince’s, 
at Manchester. We are bound to add that the report 
obtains but scant credit. 
MUSIC ABROAD. 
A T Vienna the principal musical event lately has boon 
the grand concert got up for the benefit of the 
widows and orphans of those Austrian soldiers who fell in 
the late war. The presiding genius on the occasion was 
Herr Herbeck, the celebrated Oapellmeister. The executants 
were the members of the Vienna Association for Male Voices, 
and those of most of the other Associations of the same 
description in the Austrian capital, assisted by the bands of 
the two infantry regiments, named after the Grand 
Duke Franz Ferdinand d’Este and Count Kehvenhiiller, 
respectively. The concert-hall was the building known as 
the Winter Riding School, fitted up expressly for the oc- 
casion. As might have been foretold, the attendance was 
something extraordinary. Every nook and corner was full, 
and in the Emperor’s box were nearly all the princes of the 
Imperial Family, together with a great many other princes, 
from “foreign parts,” now stopping in Vienna. At least 
four thousand persons were in the audience part of the 
edifice, while above twelve hundred vocalists occupied that 
devoted to those who took an active share in the proceedings. 
The programme consisted of justly popular choral com- 
positions, but it was not these which had attracted the vast 
assembly so much as the desire .to alleviate in some degree 
the sufferings of those whose husbands and fathers had 
sacrificed their lives for their country. Indeed, the alacrity, 
nay, the feverish anxiety, with which the public has come 
forward all over Germany to advance the sacred cause of 
charity is something deserving- of the highest praise. 
One of the latest additions to the company at the Imperial 
Opera-house is Fraulein Aglaja Orgeny, for a time attached 
