Chamberss Edinburgh Journal, No. 436 | Page 5

no inconsiderable number could perhaps
perform it very decently themselves. It is indeed at these quartett and
quintett meetings, that you see genuine specimens of musical
knowledge and musical enthusiasm. They take place by half-dozens
during the season; and you always find the same class of audience,
often the same individuals, regularly ranged before the executants.

But place now for the real grand, miscellaneous, popular, and populous
morning concert! Now for elephantine dimensions and leviathan bills
of fare. It is nominally, perhaps, or really, perhaps, the annual benefit
concert of some well-known performer, or it is the speculation of a
great musical publishing house, in the name of one of their composing
or performing protégés. The latter is, indeed, a very common practice.
But whether the music-publishing and opera-box-letting firm be the
real concert-giver, or merely the agent, to it is left the whole of the nice
operation of 'getting up' the entertainment. It has then exhausted all the
dodges of puffery in pumping up an unusual degree of excitement. The
affair is to be a 'festival' or a 'jubilee;' 'all the musical talent' of London
is to be concentrated; the continent has been dragged for extra-ordinary
executive attractions; every musical hit of the season is to be repeated;
every effect is to be got up with new éclat: never was there to be such a
super extra, ne plus ultra musical triumph. The day approaches.
Rainbow-hued affiches have done their best; placard-bearers, by scores,
have paraded, and are parading, the streets; advertisements have
blazoned the scheme day after day, and week after week; the
gratis-tickets have been duly 'planted;' puffs, oblique and implied, have
hinted at the coming attraction in every Sunday paper; and programmes
are fluttering in every get-at-able shop-front. The day comes. A long
line of fashionable carriages, strangely intermingled with shabby cabs,
file up to the doors, and the gay morning dresses, flaunting with colours,
disappear between the two colossal placards which grace the entrance.
The room is filled. Habitués, and knowing musical men on town,
recognise each other, and congregate in groups, laughingly comparing
notes upon the probabilities of what artists announced will make an
appearance, and upon what apologies will be offered in lieu of those
who don't. A couple of these last are probably already in circulation.
Madame Sopranini is confined to bed with an inflammatory attack; and
Signor Bassinini has got bronchitis. Nevertheless, the concert begins;
and oh! the length thereof. The principal vocalists seem to have mostly
mistaken the time at which they would be wanted; and the chopping
and changing of the programme are bewildering. Bravuras take the
place of concertos; a duet being missing, an aria closes the ranks; a solo
on the trombone not being forthcoming, a vocal trio (unaccompanied)
is hurriedly substituted. Still, there is plenty of the originally announced

music; all the favourite airs, duets, and trios from the fashionable
operas; all the ballads in vogue--the music published by the house
which has set the whole thing on foot, of course; all the phenomena of
executive brilliance are there, or are momentarily expected to appear.
We begin after an overture with, say, an air from the Puritani, by a
lovely tenor; another, from the Somnambula, by a charming soprano; a
fantasia by a legerdemain pianist, with long hair, and who comes down
on the key-board as though it was his enemy; the famous song from
Figaro--encored; the madrigal, 'Down in a Flowery Vale'--the latter
always a sure card; a duet from Semiramide, by two young
ladies--rather shaky; solo on the clarionet, by a gentleman who makes
the instrument sound like a fiddle--great applause; 'In manly Worth,' by
an oratorio tenor; the overture to Masaniello, by the band; concerto
(posthumous, Beethoven), by a stern classical man--audience yawn; pot
pourri, by a romantic practitioner--audience waken up; ballad, 'When
Hearts are torn by manly Vows,' by an English tenor--great delight, and
encouragement of native talent; glee, 'Glorious Apollo,' or, 'The
Red-cross Knight'--very well received; recitative and aria, from Lucia
di Lammermoor--very lachrymose; violin solo, by Signor Rosinini,
who throws the audience into a paroxysm of delight by imitating a saw
and a grindstone; 'The Bay of Biscay,' by the 'veteran' Braham, being
positively his last appearance (the 'veteran' is announced for four
concerts in the ensuing week!); ballad, again, by the native tenor,
'When Vows are torn by slumbering Hearts'--more great applause; the
page's song from the Huguenots, for the contralto; 'When the Heart of a
Man,' Beggars' Opera; quartett for four pianofortes, great bustle
arranging them, and then only three performers forthcoming--an
apology--attack of bronchitis--but Mr Braham will kindly (thunders of
applause) sing 'The Death of Nelson;' quartett for double-bass,
trombone, drum, and triangles--curious effect; the audience hardly
know whether they like it or not; the bravura song of the