ledge of its art, may be combined with all the qualities which become an intrepid man and a free citizen; and from a diffusion of a taste for this, as well as other fine arts among our higher classes, we anticipate the growth of a body of men, who may combine the cultivated taste and polished manners which distinguish the nobility in the south of Europe, with the energy, the manliness, and the learning, which have always been the honourable characteristics of the inhabitants of the north. It is foreign to our purpose, and beyond our abilities, to give a detailed account of the different performances which composed this delightful Festival, or of the splendid ability with which it was conducted. To those who had the good fortune to hear them, such commendations would be superfluous; to those who were absent, they would be uninteresting. Yet cursory as the account which we can afford to give necessarily must be, we cannot refrain from adding our testimony to the united suffrages of all those best qualified to judge, in favour of the admirable arrangement which was pursued by the Directors, and the unrivalled excellencies which were displayed by the performers. First in the scale of excellence, as greatest in the emotion which they produced, we must place the sublime choruses from Handel and Hayden, which occurred in the Messiah and the Creation. All Europe has felt the sublimity of these astonishing productions; but never, perhaps, were they heard to greater advantage, never certainly were they given with finer effect than in the Morning Concerts in the Parliament House. The imposing appearance of that venerable room, the order and propriety of the immense multitude assembled under its roof, the admirable composition and united power of the Orchestra, combined to produce an effect greater, perhaps, than was ever felt by any who were then present. There are none, we are sure, who heard, for the first time, the Hallelujah Chorus at the conclusion of the first part of the Messiah, without being both happier and better; happier, because they were admitted, as it were, into a new world of enjoyment, of which they could not before have formed a conception; and better, because they were filled for the moment, at least, with feelings of devotion, to which, in their former lives, they must have been strangers. Nor were the powers of this magnificent orchestra less adapted to the production of those more cheerful and animating emotions which the Evening Concerts were intended to awaken. We have never in any country, not even in the far-famed and musical city of Naples, heard a combination of musical talents more splendid or more successful than in the grand symphonies which commenced the Evening Concerts on Tuesday and Friday.— Little, indeed, as we are accustomed in this country to such great and complicated efforts of art, we are confident that these performances must have done much to awaken a taste for these excellencies; and that many who went there, without the least conception of their beauties, returned with their minds opened to a new source of enjoyment in life. Of the delicate voice and cultivated taste of Miss Stephens, it would be presumptuous for us to speak, and superfluous to express our admiration. There is no one who heard her sing the beautiful air in the Creation, "With verdure clad the fields appear," or the more pathetic strain in the Messiah, "I know that my Redeemer liveth," without rejoicing in the powers which our native talent has developed, and feeling the justice of the celebrity which it has acquired. Yet with all our admiration for the versatility and perfection of her talents, we cannot help observing, that she does not appear to be peculiarly qualified for sacred music. We have heard that this is contrary to her own opinion, and to that of many of the best judges of the art. Perhaps, therefore, it is the influence of associa tion, and the habit of hearing her sing tender and joyous airs, which makes us think that there is too great lightness and vivacity in her voice-perhaps too great blythness in the expression of her countenance, to suit the melancholy and spiritual expression which religious service requires. It is in the expression of love of tenderness, or of the pathetic of domestic life, that her delightful powers seem to be in their proper sphere; and those who heard her sing the simple and touching air of Auld Robin Gray, will not easily forget the genius with which she adapted her powers to the expression of these varied emotions, and by the delicacy of the transitions, gave to that musical narrative, the unity of effect which springs from the perception of a single emotion. Mr Braham displayed the same strength and versatility of voice, the same power and sublimity of thought, which have already made his name so distinguished among the European performers. If we could presume, however, to criticise the works of this great artist, we should say, that the consciousness of his almost unrivalled powers, sometimes leads him to aim at the exhibition of art, in a manner inconsistent with the end to which it is destined, and subversive of that train of delightful feelings in which so much of the charms of music consist. Whenever the spectator forgets the music in the artist, and is awakened out of the reverie of delight into which he had been thrown by astonishment at the powers which he exhibits, the spell is broken, and the enchanted land in which he had found himself is dissolved. There was much of this unfortunate display in many of Mr Braham's greatest exertions in the solos, towards the close of the Messiah; and highly as those acquainted with the art may appreciate such exhibitions of vocal skill, we are persuaded, that over the audience in general they excited no other feeling but regret and disappointment. And herein do we anticipate one most important and salutary effect of the dissemination of a taste for the higher branches of music amongst us; that our people, trained to a knowledge of the real object of the art, and accustomed to feel its genuine beauties, will banish from our performances, as the people of Italy have done from theirs, those forced exhibitions of skill which the vanity of performers, seeking to excel each other, is perpetually endeavouring to intro duce, but which are not less injurious to their real celebrity than subversive of the emotion which it should be their object to excite in the audience. We know not in what terms to express our admiration at the enchanting performances of Mr Yaniewicz and Lindley, on the violin and violoncello; performances beyond any other almost which we have ever heard in that department, and which we might be inclined to believe, arose from instru ments different from those which are used by any other men. The perfect silence which permitted the lightest touch of those inimitable performers to be heard in the farthest extremities of the theatre, more even than the rapturous applause which followed, demonstrated the intense and breathless interest which their performances excited in the audience. When we heard the wild and ravishing airs which in their hands the violoncello was capable of producing, we almost forgot that we were dwelling amongst mortal men; and seemed rather to be listening to sounds produced by the light and aerial touch of fairy hands, or to those heavenly strains which steal upon the mind, when the soft zephyrs of the west sweep over the chords of the Eolian harp. In the performances of Dragonetti, the audience had equal reason to admire that matchless skill, which has almost changed the instrument on which he exerts his powers, and rendered it capable of producing sounds which no other hand was ever able to bring forth. We believe there never was an artist, (certainly it has never been our good fortune to hear one) who could approach even to the admirable talent which he displays in the management of the bassoon; and yet we are conscious that we are but ill qualified to judge either of the extent of the difficulties with which he had to contend, or of the ability with which he has overcome them, since many pieces, which to us appeared rather singular than beautiful, excited the most enthusiastic admiration among the surrounding artists. It is when we hear the touch of any other hand on the same instrument, that the extraordinary ability of that great performer fully appears; as the eye which has followed the dancing of Madamoiselle Bigotini becomes insensible to the taste with which her motions are guided, and requires to look at the other performers to appreciate that inimitable grace with which she dignifies the voluptuous scene of the Parisian opera. Of the merits of Ambrogetti we feel ourselves little qualified to speak, as the style of singing in which he principally was brought forward is one for which we do not profess sufficient local knowledge to judge. The opera Buffa, of the Italian stage, is little un derstood by foreigners, even at Milan and Naples, where the manners which it caricatures are to be seen in every street that surround them. In this country, at a distance from such manners, the merits of the imitation cannot of course be felt, how much soever we may admire the powers of the artist. Yet we may be permitted to observe, that the rapid gesticulation, the versatile talents, and the personifying power of this celebrated artist, were eminently conspicuous during the evening-concerts of this Festival; and that they left us only cause to regret that we were not sufficiently acquainted with the lower orders in Italy to perceive the fidelity of the portraits, and understand the whole of the humours which it contained. Of the abilities of Miss Goodall, who, though brought down in a secondary capacity, vindicated her claim to first-rate merit; of Mr Begrez, who to a melodious voice unites the finest and most delicate taste; of Miss Corri, whose rising powers promise to do honour to our metropolis which gave her birth, and of the other performers who assisted at this delightful Festival, our limits will not permit us to speak.-Suffice it to say, that their united exertions formed a great and splendid display of musical talent; such as is rarely witnessed in this or any other country, and to a repetition of which we believe all who heard them look forward with anxious hope. The Musical Festival is now over, but the delight which it communicated is not gone past: and it has left the seeds of enjoyment in many minds who, but for it, would have remained ignorant of the highest pleasures of which their nature is susceptible.The room, indeed, which heard these glorious strains is silent, and the multitudes who filled it are separated from each other but the delightful recollection lives in their minds, and, unknown to each other, unites many hearts, who are unconscious of the secret bond by which they are linked together. Often during the stillness of the night, or in moments of temporary forgetfulness, they steal like a delightful vision over our minds, and throw a momentary charm over existence, before we are conscious of the source from which our delight has sprung, like the celestial music, which, according to the amiable belief of CaVOL. VI. tholic countries, steals upon the enraptured soul of the Christian penitent, and gives to the bed of death a foretaste of the joys of eternal life. It would be ungrateful were we not to express our public thanks to the directors for the ability and taste which they displayed in the conduct of the whole, and the uniform urbanity with which they discharged the laborious duty which they had gratuitously and benevolently undertaken. The united voice of their fellow citizens acknow ledges the merit of these distinguished men who sacrificed so much of their valuable time to the prosecution of a duty of public charity, and to the improvement of the national taste in an art, where their own stood so little in need of cultivation. If we were to make any criticism on the selection of music which they made, we would ob◄ serve, that the performance of Wednesday morning was too long; and that, notwithstanding the sublimity of the Mount of Olives, on Saturday, there is something abhorrent to our feelings in the personification of the sacred characters which are there brought on the stage. Such personifications may do very well in Catholic countries, where the people are accustomed to religious allegories, and to representations of the Deity himself in mortal colours; but they are revolting to our habits, and unsuitable to the indistinct feeling of veneration with which we are accustomed to regard the earthly character of our Saviour. There was, indeed, enough to reward the public spirit of the directors in the brilliant spectacle which the Festival which they had created produced in this city. Never, certainly, since this kingdom began, was so magnificent an assemblage of rank and beauty and opulence brought together, as in Edinburgh during the week that this Festival lasted. Nor were the recollections of the past less interesting than the splendour of the present. When we cast our eyes over the superb Hall of the Parliament House, filled with every thing most distinguished which the country could exhibit, we involuntarily went back in imagination to those distant periods when the representatives of a poor and barbarous nation assembled under its roof; and recollected how much their wise and upright conduct had contributed to the prosperity which was there 2 B exhibited; and when we beheld the splendid train of three hundred equipages sweeping round the base of the Calton Hill, and entering the city by the magnificent opening of Waterloo Place, we looked down with heartfelt gratitude to that now forgotten Palace, where the brave kings of Scotland once lived and struggled with a turbulent nobility and a barren soil, to maintain the freedom of their native land. But for their bold and unconquered spirit Scotland might have shared with Ireland the horrors of English conquest; and in place of exulting now in the prosperity of our country, and the assembled splendour of our nobility, we might have been deploring, with them, an absent nobility and a ruined people. Amidst our gratitude for the past, let us not forget the means by which similar prosperity for the future is to be obtained; and if we would secure for this country the inestimable blessings of a resident and patriotic body of landed proprietors, let us seek to give to its metropolis the attractions which might otherwise draw our youth to distant countries; and teach them to look to its taste and refinement, for the means of acquiring the elegant accomplishments, as they have long done, for the more solid acquirements of life. MR EDITOR, DON JUAN UNREAD. I composed the following poem on Tuesday-night last, between the hours of eleven and twelve o'clock, during a sound sleep, into which I had fallen while in the act of attempting to peruse Constable's Magazine. While I slept I was busily employed in versifying, and should, I am sure, have composed much more, but that I unfortunately threw the Magazine off the table upon my foot, which instantly awaked me. A half-hundred could not have descended with more weight, a circumstance which proves how very heavy the articles contained in that work must be; and I feel the effects of it yet. I send my lines merely as a psychological curiosity like Kubla Khan. It is a remarkable fact, that a poem of Mr Wordsworth's, “Yarrow Unvisited," bears a resemblance to this of mine; how to account for this coincidence I know not. I remain, Sir, your humble servant, M. N. YARROW UNVISITED. From Stirling Castle we had seen Had trod the banks of Clyde, and Tay, "Let Yarrow Folk, frae Selkirk Town, "There's Gala Water, Leader Haughs, And Dryborough, where with chiming The Lintwhites sing in chorus; DON JUAN UNREAD. Of Corinth Castle we had read The amazing Siege unravelled, As faithfully as any, Until he cried, "Come, turn aside "Let Whiggish folk, frac Holland House, "There's Godwin's daughter, Shelley's A writing fearful stories; There's Hazlitt, who, with Hunt and Keats • A recollection of the usual accoutrements of the prince of the air, to whose service the poem of Don Juan is devoted, will account for this epithet being applied to its author. +Italice for Juan, which is Hispanice for John. + Witness the subscription for Hone as a reward for parodying the Lord's Prayer, &c. in which list the Duke of Bedford, Lord Sefton, and many other Whig leaders, figured conspicuously. There's pleasant Tiviot Dale, a land "What's Yarrow but a River bare There's pleasant Thomas Moore, a lad -Strange words they seem'd of slight and Strange words they seem'd of slight and scorn; My true-love sigh'd for sorrow; And look'd me in the face, to think I thus could speak of Yarrow ! scorn; His Lordship look'd not canny ;† And took a pinch of snuff, to think I flouted Don Giovanni. “Oh! green," said I, "are Yarrow's "O! rich," said I, "are Juan's rhymes, Holms, And sweet is Yarrow flowing! "Let Beeves and home-bred Kine partake "Be Yarrow Stream unseen, unknown! "If Care with freezing years should come, Should life be dull, and spirits low, That earth has something yet to show, The bonny Holms of Yarrow !" In And warm its verse is flowing! Fair crops of blasphemy it bears, But we will leave them growing, Pindar's strain, in prose of Paine, And many another Zanny, As gross we read, so where's the need, To wade through Don Giovanni. "Let Colburn's town-bred cattle snuff We will not read them, will not hear Be Juan then unseen, unknown! Ah! why should we undo it? "When Whigs with freezing rule shall come, And piety seem folly; When Cam and Isis|| curbed by Brougham, When Cobbett, Wooler, Watson, Hunt, Shall rough-shod ride¶ o'er church'and state, "Come, tell me, says Rosa, as kissing and kissed," &c. and "Sweet Fanny of Timmol," with many other equally edifying little pieces. +Scotice for-I do not exactly know what but it signifies something pleasant, comfortable, knowing, snug, or the like. Peter, to wit. § Vulgariter for grandmother, not that I mean to assert that Lady M. is a grandmother, but to insinuate, that as she is old enough to be one, she has a fair claim to the title. Rivers, on the banks of which certain Universities much indebted to the learned jurisconsult mentioned in the text for his kind attention to their interests, are seated. ¶ "We shall ride roughshod over Carlton House."--Speech of all the talents through the mouth-piece of Lord -, on hearing of the assassination of Mr Percival. |