MUSIC.
QUARTET CONCERTS—THRONE-ROOM, CROSBY HALL.
MR. DANDO varies his performances at this place very judiciously ; intermingling with the established and stock favourite pieces compo- sitions that are new—either through age, or through difficulty that has retarded their public execution : so that no amateur can retire dis- satisfied from one of his piquant entertainments, or without a con- sciousness that he has heard some of the finest music carefully and satisfactorily rendered. The performance of Monday opened with a "Concerto per il Cembalo " with accompaniments for a quintet of stringed instruments, by SEBASTIAN Baca. It was delightful to hear the pianoforte part of this concerto played with the unaffected natural accent which constitutes the charm of Mr. STERNDALE BENNETT's perform- ance. The soft flowing style of the solos of the first movement in D minor, in which beautiful effects were produced by the interweaving of the hands, the grandeur and solidity of the adagio in G minor, and the animation of the concluding allegro—conspicuous features of this com- position—were all represented by Mr. BassErr with great simplicity, and that thorough intellectual mastery of his author which is most to be desired in such an undertaking. For the mechanical difficulty of the Concerto instrument of the age of BACH and HANDEL is comparatively nothing musicians of that day being measured chiefly if not entirely by their intellectual resources. Although the decay of musical invention has changed the characteristics of the concerto, and substituted hazard- ous feats of manual dexterity for passages of genuine music, the primitive models did not recognize any necessity for the presence of great diffi- culty. In their pieces of this denomination, attention is chiefly drawn to the art with which the principal instrument is concerted with others. The entry of one or two instruments at a time according to the fancy of the composer, in these antique compositions, keeps the atten- tion far more interestingly occupied than the more formal separation of the " solo " and "tutu" which prevails at the present day,—an inept method of concerto-composition, and certainly foreign to its original design. The precision of accompaniment which the independence ob- served in the models of the old school renders necessary, reflected much praise on the execution of Messrs. DANDO, GATTIE, J. LODER, LUCAS, and C. SEVERN.
The quartet-playing of the four first-mentioned artists was also of the very finest description. There are few players who could have performed in so neat and accurate a manner as they did the uncom- ncom monly monly difficult quartet of MENDELssose in E fiat, No. 3, op. 44. The finest thing in this composition is a scherzo in C minor, of which the second part is fugued with delightful skill. This was in point of exe- cution admirably finished, and left of the composer's directions, " Assai leggiero e vivace," nothing unfulfilled. But of the composition as a whole we cannot think favourably ; the requirements of the high quartet style demanding constant melody and fancy ; for the absence of which, neither mechanical difficulty overcome, nor counterpoint, nor modula- tion, will compensate. Indeed, the effect of MozAaT's Quartet in A, which was afterwards performed, showed the almost unapproachable character of that species of chamber-music, considered in the abstract and in its highest models. A general burst of pleasure greeted the per- formers and crowned the composition. Mr. DANDO takes obviously the greatest pains in the rehearsal of the pieces he gets up for these Crosby Hall performances ; and we hope he may long prosecute them with success, for they fulfil an object now not very easily attainable in London, and form a little school of art. The prosperity of the quartet style is of all chamber-music so intimately connected with the appreciation of that which is most polished, delicate, and beautiful in the art itself, as to form a kind of test of popular im- provement and progress. We were glad to see a room as full as it could hold, and many ladies among the auditors : and assuredly, if DANDO with his violin do not cultivate ears and extend faith in the great masters, we know not what will.
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