numerous, tuneful, and veil-schooled, intelligent choir, a brilliant orchestra and three first-rate soloists, were the factors, well able to aim at a brilliant result. The co-operation of the organ was new to us; that was indeed used very moderately, but was for that reason even the more imposing. As Haydn himself has written no organ part, we surely are right in supposing that it has been written by Herr Prof. Dr. Reinecke. The sopi-ano part was sung by Friiulein Eniilie Herzog, the tenor part by Herr Heinrich Vogl (both from the Hof-Oper in Miinchen), and the baritone part was sung by the well-beloved member of the Leipzig Opera, Herr Otto Schelper. The enthusiasm
of the audience was very great.
The programme of the eighth Gewandhaus concert was somewhat varied. It began with a S3mphony in D major by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, the predecessor of Haydn. This has many a fine and sensitive, good humorous trait, but has on the whole more an historical than a really musical interest. Very interesting indeed is the modulation from the first movement in D major to the andante in E flat major, and from there to the finale, that is, of course, in D major again. Then Fraulein Leisinger, Konigl. Preuss. Hof-Opern-siingerin, came on the platform. The young artist was to us a new, and we directly add, a very agreeable appearance. She sang an air by Mozart, from ' II re pastore,' with excellent coloration, brilliant voice, and fine taste, raising, though, the desire for more warmth in the rendition. This air was followed by a violin concerto in D major by Rode, executed in high accomplishment by Herr Concertmeister Petri. A Passacaglia by Josef Rheinberger, that followed the Concert, was a very good transition to the songs by Lassen, Schumann, and Rubinstein, that were well executed by Fraulein Leisinger. A really splendid performance was the succeeding suite for violin with piano accompaniment by Carl Reinecke, played by Herr Concertmeister Petri, that afforded an abundant calling out to the virtuoso. A finale to the concert, than which nothing better could have been chosen, was the overture of all overtures, that to 'Leonore,' No. 3, by Beethoven. The ninth concert was opened again with a novelty. It was a symphony in C minor by the here resident composer S. Jadassohn, who conducted his work him- self The work is broad in the form, and its contents in the whole are very serious. Only the Scherzo is a real Scherzo, an assertion not to be made of every Scherzo that is written nowadays. As the invention is elected, the orchestration effective, and the so-called ' work ' [arbeit) an excellent one, it may easily be conceived that the symphony found a kind reception. An innovation we did not quit agree with was the use of the harp. This instrument is too exclusively for tune charm to be able well to unite with the rest of the orchestra to a good totality. Fraulein Hermine Spies was the vocalist of the evening, and sang a composition, not yet known here, by Robert Volkmann, ' An die Nacht,' that is entitled ' fantasy piece for alto voice and orchestra,' perhaps a silent acknowledgment of the author that he himself knew well enough that he had written neither an orchestra piece nor a real piece for song. Such an hermaphrodite species is alwaj'S unhappy. Much more applause Fraulein Spies gained with songs. Herr Barge, member of the orchestra, executed an Adagio by Frederic the Great, exciting great applause, and the end of the concert was the overture to ' Genoveva ' by Robert Schumann. The Concert Season in Glasgow. — The fifteenth series of concerts under the auspices of the Glasgow Choral and Orchestral scheme terminated with the Plebiscite Concert of Saturday, the 2d ult. Certainly the most interesting event of the series was the production of an important new work for chorus and orchestra, the composition of a Scotch musician, and dealing with a purely Scotch subject. The council of the Glasgow Choral Union can- not be too highly commended for their enterprise and judgment in commissioning Mr. Hamish MacCunn to compose for them his cantata The Lay of the Last Minstrel. Although Mr. MacCunn's smaller orchestral works have been heard in Glasgow on several occasions, and his abilities were more or less known to his fellow- countrymen, the work referred to was on a far larger scale than anything he had before attempted, and its success has in some measure marked an important epoch in the progress of music in ■Scotland. It is the first distinguished composition of its kind, treating of the history, traditions, and life of our country, written by a native composer, and its undoubted merit and secured popu- larity must be deeply gratifying to all interested in the intellectual and artistic development of our land. Coming now to the orchestral concerts, while the season was not rich in novelties, still we were favoured with the production of several deeply interesting compositions, notably Dr. Stanford's ’Irish Symphony,' and two new orchestral compositions by Mr. MacCunn, 'The Dowie Dens of Yarrow,' and ' The Ship o' the Fiend.' Besides these new works we had Brahms' Second Symphony, revived after an interval of a good many years, and also Schumann's * Spring' Symphony No. I, in B flat, along with several of the symphonies of Beethoven, Haydn, and Mozart. At the choral concerts we had performances of Sullivan's 'Golden Legend' and Mendelssohn's 'Walpurgis Night,' in addition to the usual ' Messiah ' concert on New Year's Day.
We cannot congratulate our leading Choral Society on its public appearance this season. The performance of the Messiah was very imperfect and unsatisfactory, while the other choral works given during the series were only passably well rendered. The chorus has certainly gained in accuracy and precision, ami seems to be better drilled in its notes, but the singing from an artistic point of view is still far from perfect.
An interesting feature of the concerts was the superiority of the vocal items of the programmes as compared with those of former years. The songs were selected from such composers as Raft', Brahms, Grieg, Bennett, Franz, and other great exponents of this exquisite form of coiuposition. It is also most gratifying to note how highly these beautiful songs were appreciated by audiences already familiar with the larger choral and orchestral works of many of the composers referred to.
Financially, the concerts do not appear to have been more successful than last year. So far as can be estimated at present, if they cover expenses it is all we can expect, though we shall be very glad to hear, when the accounts are published, that the result is better than we suppose. It will be an interesting and important question for the guarantors to consider, — whether the present system of placing the management of the scheme mostly in the hands of a council elected by the Choral Union is the best that could be suggested.
