we have been able to learn, our country owes the credit of having first given an oratorio entire. During the first four years of its existence, it gave a number of concerts of miscellaneous sacred music. For instance, at Christmas, 1815, it engaged the orchestra of the Philharmonic Society, and gave: Part I., the "Creation," as far as the chorus: "The Heavens are telling;" and for Parts II. and III. miscellaneous selections, mostly from Handel. The performers were about one hundred, says the Centinel, and appeared to embrace all the musical excellence of the town and the vicinity. The performances-the concert was in the Stone Chapel-drew a crowded house, at a dollar for a single ticket, five for $4, and eight for $6, and pleased so much that the concert was repeated on the 18th of January. But the Society determined to do something more than as yet had been accomplished, and on the 22d of March, 1817, they announced a series of concerts which, considering the extent of Boston at that time--not so large as several other New England cities are now-the condition of the community still suffering from the effects of the war, and the small advance which a true taste for music had then made, we think shows a determination and spirit which might well be a model for imitation at this day. All honor to the few that still remain, that took part in that musical enterprise ! The announcement was as follows: SACRED ORATORIOS. The Handel and Haydn Society propose to perform in King's Chapel, on the first week in April ensuing, those two celebrated musical compositions, the "Messiah," by Handel, and the "Creation," by Haydn. The first performance, which will be on Tuesday evening, the first of April, will consist of the first part of the "Messiah and the first part of the Creation," together with an intermediate selection. The second performance, on Thursday the third of April, will consist of the second part of the "Creation" and the second part of the Messiah," with an intermediate selection. The third performance, on the fourth of April, will consist of the third part of the "Messiah" and the third part of the "Creation," with an intermediate selection. Books containing the words of the oratorios, and the order of the performances, may be obtained at the several places where tickets are for sale. Tickets for admission to the three performances for $2, and tickets for performances separately at $1 each, may be obtained at the bookstore of O. C. Greenleaf, Court street; West & Richardson and Monroe & Francis, Cornhill; S. H. Parker's circulating library, No. Water street; Franklin Musical Warehouse, Milk street; G. Graupner's, Franklin street, and David Francis's bookstore and library, Newbury street. It appears from a notice of a rehearsal, that the Philharmonic orchestra was engaged for these concerts; and from another source we have learned that an organist was brought from New York, owing to some difficulty in relation to the pecuniary consideration demanded by Dr. Jackson. (?) As a specimen of the " intermediate selections," the following is a list of the pieces in Part II. of the second concert: Chorus-From Handel's "Joshua:" "The Great Jehovah is an awful theme." Solo-Oliver Shaw, (" Blind Shaw" of Providence): "This world is all a fleeting show." Chorus "Moses and the children of Israel sang this song unto the Lord."-Handel. Recitation-Handel: "He measureth the waters in the hollow of His hand." Solo-"Thou dost blow with Thy wind." Chorus-"He gave them hail-stones for rain." Three months later, when President Monroe came to Boston, the Society was invited by "the committee of arrangements of the town of Boston," to give a select oratorio in his presence. It' * Who can give us any account of this society? took place July 5th, at 5 P. M., in Chauncy Place church. Some of the pieces sung were the choruses: "Hail Judea, happy land," "The horse and his rider," "Hailstone," "Welcome, welcome, mighty King," " Achieved is the glorious work," &c., &c. Among the solos was Shaw's sweet song: "Were not the sinful Mary's tears." Another fact which will ever stand in honor of the Society, is that some of its members sent an order to Vienna, to have BEETHOVEN Compose an oratorio for it, without limiting him in any manner as to price, subject or style-and this only from the specimens of the master, which they had sung from the "Christ on the Mount of Olives." The society, like other musical associations, has at times had its firmament clouded, but a largeminded and generous policy will, we sincerely trust, be followed at length by an appreciation on the part of the public, which shall enable it to remain as it now is, one of the institutions of Boston. We have other things to say in this connection, but our article is already long enough. If musical taste be higher in Boston than in other American cities, as is sometimes claimed, we do not hesitate to attribute it to the long and well-directed influence of our noble old Choral Society. ence. CONCERTS. THALBERG has gone! The last of the half-dollar concerts, being the fifteenth and last of his second visit to Boston, took place in the Music Hall on Tuesday afternoon. The storm thinned the audiThe character of the entertainment was such as we have many times described, and with the usual assistants, D'ANGRI, JOHANNSEN and Herr SCHREIBER. With all eir names and shapes ProteanThalberg's concerts simple, Thalberg's concerts grand, Thalberg's oratorios, festivals, children's concerts, matinées, soirées, piano recitals, &c., &c.—they are all over now. They always had delighted audiences; they have given us a great variety of fine music, and a great deal of pleasure, in which a very large part of the community have been participators. The AFTERNOON CONCERTS, too, are over. The last, on Wednesday, drew a crowd, and programme and performance were particularly good. Beethoven's Eighth Symphony-in more than one sense one of his happiest efforts, was a delicious treat. The Tannhauser overture told well, too, for a conclusion; though we would rather have heard the Leonora just at this time. There was a fine set of Waltzes by Lumbye, a spirited Gallop by Zerrahn, and an elaborate Fantasia for clarinet, composed by Reissiger and played by RYAN. Much interest was created by the remarkable piano-forte playing of Master ERNST PERABO, a lad only eleven years and three months old. The motive for this single public exhibition of his talent was a good one: it was simply to show that he has talent such as should not be allowed to run to waste, and to interest our music-lovers if possible enough to give him the means of seeking solid education in Germany. Of course the child did not do his best; and yet what he did was evidence enough of most decided musical talent. He played the first Song without Words, by Mendelssohn, clearly, (but of course without the expression which such pieces require); a florid melodie varié, by Döhler, in the modern style; a Souvenir de Mendelssohn, by Krug, in which he made the melody stand distinctly out amid a wealth of accompaniment; and finally a composition of his own, a sort of minor church air, of not a little beauty, followed by half a dozen variations, astonishingly clever for a boy. His musical memory is remarkable; and so is his power of reading music. We have heard him play correctly and clearly at sight a pretty difficult prelude and fugue by Mendelssohn; and from memory various fugues of Bach, Mozart, &c., of which he carries some thirty in his head and fingers. The Afternoon Concerts have been a success. We have no doubt they might go on successfully for a month more. BOSTON CHORISTERS' SCHOOL-To nothing for some time have we listened with more fresh and peculiar interest than to the concert given by Mr. H. S. CUTLER, on Wednesday evening, at the Tremont Temple. Its objects were to give the audience some idea of English Cathedral Music, and to exhibit the practicability and proper use of boy choirs in the Episcopal service. The pieces of the first part were prefaced and interspersed with very instructive and interesting explanations and historical notices by Mr. ALEXANDER W. THAYER, who won the warm thanks of the audience. We hope to give our readers his entire lecture in our next. We have no room now to do much justice to the concert, or to treat, as we hope some time to be able to do, several important questions which it raised anew in our mind. Of the real artistic worth, or creative genius, of this old English music, we are still unprepared to judge with confidence. But as a ritual, as a branch of a church service, it has at least the merit of uniform dignity, and freedom from poor triviality and sentimentality. Some of the pieces sung that evening impressed us very deeply. We are no believer in the old Church Modes as absolute; and permanent types; we see in them only rude, imperfect efforts to get at the only complete Scale yet in their very limitations there is a certain quaint grandeur of effect, which no one will deny. We felt it and enjoyed it in the two first pieces, the Gregorian Venite, and the Te Deum by Tallis. Both these and the quite elaborate fugued Te Deums and anthems of later date (by Farrant, Webbe, Rogers, Travers and Boyce), seemed (to judge from that experiment) to be most fitly rendered by choirs in which the soprano part is sung by boys. But leaving for the present all discussion of the compositions, we would simply bear our testimony to the rare charm and perfection of the execution of the entire programme. The two choirs were arranged antiphonally at opposite ends of the stage, each consisting of six boys (or choristers), two counter-tenors, two tenors and two basses. The boys were from the Church of the Advent; among the older singers, called in for the purpose, we noticed Messrs. MOZART and GARRETT, basses, Messrs. HOWARD and ADAMS, tenors, &c. The choirs had been marvellously well drilled, and sang, sometimes without accompaniment, long and difficult anthems, with such perfect truth and clearness as we rarely hear in any concert. The boys' voices were all pure, sweet and musical, always in time and tune, and they sang with an earnestness and an unaffected joy in what they did, free from all sign of vanity or individual self-consciousness, that was refreshing to witness. The whole behavior of these young gentlemen was as commendable as their musical accomplishment.Three of them sang the Trio from "Elijah": Lift thine eyes, without aid of instrument, with delightful sweetness and silvery purity of harmony. core. The song from Handel: Come unto Him, by young Master WHITE, was so beautiful as to elicit an enIn the place of another lad, who was unwell, Mr. C. R. ADAMS sang: If with all hearts, very your finely. Choruses from the "Messiah" and from "Samson were sung by the two little choirs united, and with an effect and volume of tone that surprised us. Mr. Cutler, who is one of our best organists, accompanied. He is plainly quite in earnest in his devotion to this school of church music; he modestly and simply merged himself in his work; whatever might be our doubts and prejudices about the English music, here was a genuine opportunity to learn about it, and all who embraced it could not but feel rewarded and grateful to Mr. Cutler and to Mr. Thayer. Musical Correspondence. BERLIN, MARCH 8th.-(From a private letter.)— I have just been looking through a book, which perhaps has not come under your notice-" BEETHOVEN, ses Critiques et ses Glossateurs, par OULI. BICHEFF." It does not strike me as a very valuable work; but noteworthy are the criticisms which he has therein collected; for instance, what Wagner and Berlioz have said upon the Ninth Symphony. Oulibicheff divides Beethoven's works into three periods, and is of opinion that during the third Beethoven was already so deaf, that he no longer retained fully in his memory the separate tones, with the good and bad effects which they may produce, and hence composed and combined things, which, if he could have heard them, he would have avoided. Oulibicheff even gives some passages from the Ninth Symphony as proofs of this point. But he seems to me, to use a German phrase, to be quite in a bye-way"; for how is it possible that Beethoven should have so missed filling his soul with music and its effects, that he needed to hear his compositions with the physical ear? 66 On the other hand I believe that he only can fully understand these later compositions, who has first made himself master of the earlier works, and who is thus enabled to follow Beethoven into his thoughts and feelings. We have not been this season, as in so many winters past, overwhelmed with too many concerts, and (what is especially worthy of honorable notice) all mediocre talent has been so prudent as to turn its back upon our city and bless other places with its presence. Herr STERN [Star], the conductor of the great choral association, [Singverein,] has done honor to his name, and has caused a star of the first magnitude to appear to us-the Grand Mass of Beethoven, which was also given last year. This work is so effective and mighty that one is completely carried away by it, and never thinks of passing judgment upon it; as when one euters the cathedral at Cologne and feels as if it was not built, but had stood so from the beginning of things, and that every stone must from necessity lie just so; so it is with this mass of Beethoven's. The parallel with the cathedral is also carried out in this, that it is so perfectly catholic. For instance, introducing the Dona nobis pacem, [the prayer for peace,] suddenly are heard the bright notes of the horns, which impresses the hearer with the idea that Beethoven intended to convey the idea of war instead of peace. I had opportunity to attend one of the rehearsals. In this way, through the frequent repetitions of the separate parts, one is enabled to get an idea of their full beauty. And this is the work, which twenty years ago it was said must have been composed by a crazy man! The Singakademie has performed another work of Handel, "Saul," which is far less important than the "Messiah," "Alexander's Feast," &c. At Easter, as has been done I believe for twenty-five years, that society will sing Bach's Passions-musik. That is music to which the auditor needs to bring only his heart; no need of musical knowledge there; and therefore I am always sorry, that it is not sung in a church. CLARA NOVELLO is singing here with éclat, as she did many years ago. She has a voice of great compass, which it is true fails in many points, but many of its tones are of truly wonderful beauty, real flute tones, and neither the Lind nor our Johanna Wagner can produce such. And then her style is in the highest degree graceful and pleasing; she also knows the weak points of a gradually failing voice, and so well how to cover them that the hearer hardly notices them. She sings for the most part Handel's music, and in English, being English by birth. Also, airs from Haydn. I heard the air from the "Creation," With verdure clad. It is not possible to imagine it better, so pure and simple was its style. The king, who eighteen years ago had her often come to the palace to sing Handel's music, attends her concerts, which she may consider as a high honor, (if she was an American, not, perhaps?) as he now goes to no concerts but those of the Dom Chor. We have had no new operas but DORN's "Day in Russia," which has not given satisfaction, and is no longer repeated. A kapellmeister who is continually directing operas, thinks too easily, "Such an opera you can also compose;" but the public has often more judgment than it has credit for, and does not allow itself to be dazzled by beautiful decorations. Musical Chit-Chat. Bound volumes of our Journal, for the past year. will soon be ready.... Mrs. MozART deserves a large attendance at her concert this evening. She has one of the richest soprano voices, and is one of our best singers. The concert is prior to her departure for Europe, where she will seek musical improvement in the best schools of Paris, Italy and Germany. She will have excellent assistance to-night, and the programme will be rich and varied. We have just had a good specimen of English church music, and now we are invited, by Mr. WERNER, to a concert of purely Catholic music, including Mozart's Requi em, to be sung by Catholic choirs, Sunday evening, May 3d... Read NOVELLO's advertisement, if you would find choice, abundant and cheap supplies of Madrigal and Glee music, both of the English and the German schools. FRY, of the Tribune, says of Mme. GAZZANIGA, that "her voice is an absolute soprano-rich, full, loud, potent, true, steady, tearful, passionate, heroic," and that although deficient in some respects, she is in others "the greatest singer that has ever been in America."....A" Grand Verdi Festival," at Exeter Hall, London, was announced for Easter Monday, at which all the choicest music of Il Trovatore, Rigoletto and La Traviata was to be performed " in a more perfect manner than ever before attempted;" the list of distinguished artists includes Mr. MILLARDI, besides CLARA NOVELLO, Miss DOLBY, SIMS REEVES, &c. ...." Dr. MARK and his little men," is the title of a juvenile orchestra, of 30 instrumental performers and 40 singers, composed of little English, Scotch and Irish boys, from five to fifteen years of age, whom Dr. Mark has taught gratuitously, to illustrate his new system, and with whom he is giving concerts in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, &c. They have what is called a "Tonic Sol-Fa Association in London, which was to hold a Choral Meeting in Exeter Hall, March 31st, when the chair would be taken by W. E. Hickson, Esq., author of "The Singing Master," and an essay on "The Use of Singing," and when a choir of 800 voices, entirely without the aid of any instrumental accompaniment, would sing selections from Mendelssohn, Nägeli, Becker, Spofforth, Webbe, and other eminent composers..... BALFE has composed a song to Tennyson's "Come into the garden, Maud," and SIMS REEVES sings it..... Our old friend BADIALI, baritono superbo, sang last month in Paris at a concert given by HENRI HERZ, who brought out some new piano pieces of his own; namely, a fantasia on La Favorita, a Galop brillant, and Le Chant du Pelerin. Mme. VIARDOT GARCIA sang at the same concert two of Chopin's Mazurkas, set to English words, and an antique air or recitative by Lulli. BOTTESINI was there, too, without his double bass, but as conductor. Verily not a few of the names that figure now-a-days in European operas and concerts have a look of "old acquaintance' to Bostonians and New Yorkers.....LEOPOLD DE MEYER, the "lionpianist," has arrived in Paris, where he proposes to remain some months. He has been playing at the Hague and Brussels, and before the king of Holland. 66 Among the notices of new books abroad, we read: Germany has sent us a thick octavo teatise on Beethoven, his critics and glossators, and a new biography, (six vols. !), of Mozart, with an analysis of his principal works, by A. OULIBICHEFF, both writ ten in French." We wonder if the new biography of Mozart, in six volumes, is anything more than a new (perhaps enlarged) edition of his old one, in three volumes, a work with which the readers of this Journal should by this time be somewhat familiar. Few composers ever found so appreciative a biographer; but now that M. Oulibicheff has taken Beethoven in hand, we trust that he has found out how to appreciate him better than he did when Mozart filled his whole horizon....New York papers mention the death in that city of WILLIAM H. REEVES, the English tenor, who came to this country with Mme. Anna Bishop. He leaves a wife and children in a state of destitution. He was a brother of the famous SIMS REEVES. Advertisements. MRS. J. M. MOZART, Miss TWICHELL, Mr. ADAMS, Mr. MOZART, Mozart's Grand Requiem Mass BY THE Will be performed (for the first time in public by a Catholic Under the direction of Mr. A. WERNER. MOZART'S GRAND REQUIEM MASS. SELECTIONS from some of the most distinguished Catholic Beethoven. Tickets 50 cents. Family tickets, admitting three persons, $1. To be had at the Music Stores, Catholic Bookstores, of the Ticket committee, and at the door. - Programmes with Latin and English words to be had at the hall. Doors open at 62; Concert to commence at 71⁄2 o'clock. MENDELSSOHN MUSICAL INSTITUTE. HE Summer Term commences April 30th. Pupils may a every department of Music. Also in the Modern Languages, Drawing, Painting, &c., and higher English branches as accessaries. Situations secured to pupils who become qualified to teach. A few vacancies for young ladies in the family of the Principal. For circulars, &c., address EDWARD B. OLIVER, PITTSFIELD, MASS. C. L. WATKINS & Co. (Successors to REED & WATKINS,) Wholesale & Retail Dealers in PIANO-FORTES AND MELODEONS, From the most celebrated Eastern Manufactories. WAREHOUSE and SHOWROOMS, No. 51 Randolph Street,........Chicago, Ill. J. C. D. PARKER, Instructor of the Piano-Forte, Organ & Harmony, 8 HAYWARD PLACE. Important to Conductors, Masters part of the Uni ed States a complete Catalogue of the contents of their celebrated Musical Journals for Military Band, Stringed Band, and Brass Band. These three works have been in course of publication many years, and now comprise the most extensive repertoire of STANDARD & MODERN OPERAS, MARCHES, QUICK-STEPS, DANCES, &c., Arranged by C. Boosé, (Band Master Fusilier Guards,) and other eminent Professors. A number of each Journal is published every month. There are now published 120 numbers of the Military Journal, (for a reed band.) price las, each; 60 numbers of the Brass Band Journal, price 7s ench; and 70 numbers of the Orchestral Journal, (lor stringed band,) price 5s. each. The Orchestral Journal consists of Dance music only. An allowance of one third off the marked price is given to the profession and trade. All orders must be accompanied with a remittance payable to BOOSEY & SONS, MUSIC PUBLISHERS, 24 and 28 HOLLES ST., LONDON, (ENG.) SIGNOR AUGUSTO BENDELARI Teacher of the Piano and Singing, U. S. HOTEL. WILLIAM A. JOHNSON, ORGAN BUILDER, WESTFIELD, MASS. Was awarded for these Pianos at the last Great Exhibition in Boston, in competition with the best makers in the country, for their fine musical tone and perfect action. Also, A BRONZE MEDAL, For the superiority and beauty of the exterior. Every instrument purchased from this establishment will be warranted to give full and perfect satisfaction. Warerooms 335 Washington St., corner West St., BOSTON. WILLIAM GOOCH, TEACHER OF MUSIC, AT JAMES W. VOSE'S, No. 335 WASHINGTON STREET. S. B. BALL, TEACHER OF MUSIC, Rooms at Rev. A. A. Miner's Church....School Street, Boston. EDWARD L. BALCH, OTTO DRESEL Gives Instruction on the PIANO, and may be addressed at Richardson's Musical Exchange. Terms, $50 per quarter of 24 lessons, two a week; $30 per quarter of 12 lessons, one a week. MUSIC AND JOB PRINTING OFFICE, PATENT AMERICAN ACTION Manufactory, 379 Washington Street, J. TRENKLE, TEACHER OF THE PIANO-FORTE, Residence No. 56 Kneeland Street. No. 21 SCHOOL STREET. WHOLE NO. 264. A Paper of Art and Literature. BOSTON, SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 1857. Dwight's Journal of Music, PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. 66 J. S. DWIGHT, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. SUBSCRIPTIONS RECEIVED At the OFFICE OF PUBLICATION,....21 School St. Boston. "G. ANDRE & CO..... 306 Chestnut St. Philadelphia. "C. BREUSING,. "GEORGE DUTTON, JR. "JOHN H. MELLOR,.. Pittsburg, Pa. "MILLER & BEACHAM,..181 Baltimore St. Baltimore. Savannah, Ga. there is an aristocratic air about it which embar- A visit to the garden of the Cascine, on Sun- For Dwight's Journal of Music. Sunday in Florence A Visit to the Villa the principal avenue, while those on foot wander Catalani. among the side-walks of the wood. The whole silvery Italian of beautiful Tuscany falls melodi- Translated from "Les Nuits Italiennes," by Méry. The first impression made on the mind on entering a new city, is always the deepest. I was fortunate in entering Florence on Saturday evening. The next morning the city appeared to me under an aspect of strange beauty. Never did the sun shed a more brilliant light. I prefer "the Cascine" to the gardens of the Tuileries. The trees of the Tuileries seem to look down upon you with a patronizing air, like the oak in the fable. One feels almost inclined to wipe his feet at the gate, as if at the entrance of a richly-furnished drawing-room. Cincinnatus and Spartacus would hardly be admitted there; VOL. XI. No. 4. the name of the illustrious singer, is in the neighborhood of Loggia. I know of nothing in the world more touching than the services of the Catholic church, performed in an humble village chapel. In Italy especially, as in the south of France, we feel, in spite of ourselves, touched with pious emotion, among these quiet villagers, with their simple faith, and, by a sudden transition, the mind reverts once more to the sweet monitions of childhood. Mass was performed by a venerable octogenarian priest. The chapel was filled with peasants, all kneeling in careless attitudes, but joining fervently in the prayers at the altar. In the chancel were a few invited guests, among them Madame GAETANO MURAT and a noble Polish exile, Count POTOCKI. Madame Catalani chanted the Litany with that magnificent voice which all Europe has heard and admired. She had on this occasion, for an audience, neither the pit of La Scala nor the boxes of San Carlo; neither an assembly of Parisians, Russians and English, nor a congress of kings. Only poor peasants were listening to her, openmouthed; their faces were expressive of enchantment-ecstacy. I have rarely seen a picture so touching. The celebrated singer, kneeling at the foot of the altar, was as beautiful and majestic as we had so often seen her at the Italian opera, in Paris; her eyes as brilliant, and her face trembling with emotion. It was beautiful to see Semiramis thus abandoning the Babylonian people to give pleasure to a whole village, by her Prayer to the Virgin, pouring forth the solemn notes of the Christian invocation. It was delightful to me to hear those earnest prayers which burst forth in their rich, sonorous Latin from Italian lips. The simple village chapel had never thrilled to such sounds before. To those sublime a sermon at the Duomo, where one of those elo-invocations, "Mystical Rose," "Tower of Ivory," One fine Sunday in spring, I went out of Florence by the Porta San Gallo, to answer an urgent invitation, that I had received the evening before; I was going to hear the "Litany of the Virgin," in the chapel in the village of Loggia. Madame CATALANI was to sing with her daughter, Madame DUVIVIER. The country-seat, which by the command of the Grand Duke, bears "Comforter of the Afflicted," the village choir responded, Pray for us." The harmonious "Ora pro Nobis " was sung with wonderful effect, and with that natural precision of note and perfect harmony which belongs to every Italian ear. The arrangement of the chants and responses was severe and simple, just as it was written by St. Bernard, the great servant of Mary. The singer did not alter the original simplicity of the hymns, but she uttered each address with an inspired ardor and deep enthusiasm, that gave an unexpected beauty to the delicate poetry of the prayer. Her divine voice seemed to rise to Heaven, full of faith and hope, and then descend to earth to be lost amidst the full response of the congregation; these alternate chants were not broken by a pause, agreeably to the written law which declares that "the prayer of the Church shall never fall to the ground," and that the silent mouth shall receive the last pious sound from the lips that have just closed. I have heard many concerts in Italy, but I have never heard anything that would compare with this village service. In the Sixtine Chapel, at Rome, during the performance of the divine Miserere before the frescoes of Michael Angelo, I have recalled with emotion the Litany of Loggia. The Pope, the Cardinals, the Sacred College, even Michael Angelo himself, more imposing than all the Court of Rome, never caused me to forget that quiet audience of villagers, responding to Madame Catalani, in that poor, dilapidated chapel. While I was thinking of the Litany, I was moved by the Miserere; and if God listens to the prayer of assembled men, He may have lent a favorable ear to the peasants of Loggia, which would be closed against the Soprani of the Chapel of the Vatican. After service, Madame Catalani invited us to her villa. Artistic Europe has built this splendid residence. Florence cannot boast a more beautiful country-seat. The Villa Catalani is surrounded by a belt of lemon and orange trees. It is built on a plain, its winter front facing the sun, its summer front the woods. It has a court-yard, surrounded by a colonnade, where are displayed four pieces of sculpture, by Luca della Robbia, the great artist, who might have worked upon the Panathenaic procession of the Parthenon, from the scaffold of a Phidias. One feels a thrill of pleasure as he enters this perfumed villa; an air of unostentatious luxury refreshes the eye; amidst the heat of the South, one feels as if in a marble bath; in every direction are marble and rich pavements of Mosaic. On all sides is seen Italian elegance, artistically disposed to repel the heat of summer. Venetian blinds in a hundred windows wave in the breeze from the Arno, and carry fresh, cool air into the galleries and staircases. Graceful arabesques cover the walls, lemon trees perfume the corridors, sweet odors from the gardens fill every alcove. We seem transported into one of those palaces that painters love to build upon their canvass, as if to console themselves for never finding them upon earth, while the frame of this picture is the Campagna of Florence. From every balcony can be seen that luminous of expanse azure, crowned with deep blue mountains, bathed by its caressing river. Beautiful Florence is seen thus under the hills of the Villa Strossi and San Miniato. It seems to rest luxuriously on the banks of the Arno, with its Duomo and two colossal towers, like an indolent woman, stretching our her arms as she goes to sleep. A sumptuous breakfast was prepared for us in a beautiful hall adjoining the orangery. The priest who had said Mass, had been invited to breakfast. He came, but begged to be excused for not sitting at the table with the other guests. Madame Catalani urged him, warmly, in her beautiful Tuscan, which can hardly be resisted, but the priest smilingly persisted in his determination. He would take nothing but a cup of chocolate, which was served in another room. These scruples seemed to me appropriate and right in the old man. The conversation at table turned upon Music, and especially upon the French Operas that are unknown in Italy. They spoke of "Robert," which had never yet crossed the Appennines. The Italians look upon this as a serious misfortune. Some have even gone from Florence to Paris to see it represented, and have paid a thousand crowns for their balcony tickets. In music, the Florentines know no narrow systemno exclusiveness. They are passionate lovers of anything beautiful, and do not ask whence it comes. I was present at the first representation of the Symphonies of Beethoven at Florence. "The Heroic" and "the Pastoral" were received with a perfect ecstacy of delight. At the first hearing these masterpieces were thoroughly understood, appreciated and adopted. In the evening, the same people who had already admired Beethoven, went into raptures at La Pergola, over Donizetti, the maestro of the season. I inquired if the opera of Robert would never be brought out at La Pergola. The company at that theatre might execute it with success. They had a French tenor, Dupré, whose voice was deliciously sweet; an excellent basso, whose name I have forgotten, and two talented singers of great merit, Persiani and Delsere. I was told that Robert would always be excluded from their stage on account of the scene in the church at Palermo, in which nuns, monks and priests appear. These scruples were too ill-founded to give me a moment's hesitation. "It is astonishing to me," I replied, "that difficulties so slight should not have been removed, since there is so strong a desire to hear Robert. It is not necessary to be strictly confined to the French libretto; a few alterations, which would not injure the effect of the music as a whole, would give you an expurgated Robert, which would not offend even the most fastidious and exacting of Tuscans.” you "We should like nothing better-but how would do all this?" "Instead of nuns, bring other ghosts on to the stage, (there is no reason why these ghosts should have a large cross on their breasts), and let them dance before the tomb of Saint Rosalie. Then, in the fifth act, you will all admit that the Church of Palermo plays only the part of a decoration, like the Vesuvius in the Muette. If you leave out the church scene and finish the opera with the Trio, you will lose nothing of importance. With true lovers of music the spectacle is always subordinate to Art. Monks, priests, nuns, cathedral and silver lamps might all be dispensed with, without the sacrifice of a single note of this masterpiece, amidst the destruction of scenery. When I return to Paris, I will ask Herr Meyerbeer if he approves of my idea, and if the composer does not object to this mutilation, I will procure for you an orthodox libretto, even if you have to take such apparitions as you have at hand in the Castle of Udolpho, between Sienna and PoggiBonzi. My reasoning convinced the most incredulous, and I have no doubt that my idea will be carried out, some day, on the Italian stage. Our breakfast ended according to the precepts of the ancient philosophers. In that brilliant, perfumed hall, adorned with Tuscan grace, in the midst of the orange groves, glowing with life, where the air of the Florentine spring seemed almost to inspire us with immortality, a solemn funeral chant began, forming a strange contrast with the scene around us, which threw the listen The ers into a delicious reverie. Madame Catalani sang the Dies Irae of the English Church, a hymn which embraces all the terrible poetry of the Puritans. This grand chant might have been written upon sepulchral marble, with a branch of cypress. The slow notes of the English horn accompanied the hymn; they resounded like the knell of the archangel's trump. Never was there a more unexpected pleasure. How ingenious and inventive is the hospitality of the Villa Catalani ! An exquisite repast, served between the singing of the Hymn to the Virgin and the Dies Irae. At dessert, vulgar ostentation introduces songs in praise of wine and love; while here, on the banks of the Arno, our glasses filled with French wines, seated between beautiful women of France and Italy, we listened with delight to a funeral hymn. The breeze played among the orange-trees upon the terrace; noon came on with its strange Italian languor; a soft light shone through the windows; transparent shadows floated over the frescoes; it was a scene like that. in the triclinium at Tibur, when Horace says to Sextius: "Nunc decet aut viridi nitidum caput impedire myrto, Aut flore, terrae quem ferunt solutae. Pallida mors æquo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas, Regumque turres. O beate Sexti, Vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat inchoare longam." This whole day was one long concert. days in Florence are made up of music, and they often last late into the night. The piano was seized upon, the audience filled the couches of the saloon, the music books were arranged upon the stands. Madame Duvivier, Madame Catalani's daughter, has, one of the finest contralto voices ever heard in Italy. She sang duets with her mother, and they exhausted Norma, La Donna del Lago and Semiramide. The elegant and artistic Parisian "Salon" was worthily represented, at the piano, by Madame Gaetano Murat, the daughter of M. de Méneval, who was the friend of the Emperor. Visitors arrived constantly from Florence; but neither the sound of wheels nor the stamping of horses on the flag-stones of the court-yard, nor the pompous announcement of the illustrious names of the Tuscan nobility, interrupted the music for a moment; nothing could stop the excitement of musical execution. The mistress of the mansion was Norma or Semiramide and we, her guests, here at Babylon or in the forest of Irminsul. No one noticed what was going on outside of the hall. It was the passion for Art, in all its divine ecstacy, of which I had so often dreamed. There was none of the condescension of the artist or singer; no effort to escape dulness or fatigue by the diversion of music; no intervals, during which people exchanged compliments and congratulations. No programme had laid out the order of our entertainment; no time was lost in unmeaning preludes, or in pretended unwillingness. No: everything floated on with vigor and true passion-cavatina, cantilena, polonaise, duet, trio, romanza. The singer was always ready and the audience were not detained in long anticipation; they would have prolonged the concert forever! The parts were promptly executed, and the piano gave no rest to the voice, nor the voice to the piano. This is the way a concert is given at the Villa Catalani. THE AFTERNOON CONCERTS.-delight of gay young Boston and especial consolation of desolate suburbans,-are now discontinued, their glory has departed, and the Music Hall shall know them no more-at least, for a season. The last of the |