30,1 it.
A series of musical performances, called the " London Thursday Con- certs," has been begun at Exeter Hall. The first took place on Thursday evening. The speculation seems similar to that of the " Wednesday Con- certs," carried on by Mr. Stammers ; a scheme to attract large popular audiences by music at a cheap rate. From the specimen afforded by the first concert, it might be doubted whether the plan is a promising one. Its principal feature is announced to be the performance of ancient ma- drigals and glees, unknown and "unpractised for centuries." Were this carried into effect, the result would surely be a failure ; and of this the managers are aware ; for the madrigals performed on Monday—beautiful, cartainly—were all well known to the public, while the glees were of the most popular and familiar kind. Both the madrigals and the glees, how- ever, were admirably performed. There was a choir of at least sixty well-trained chorus-singers, most of them from the Royal Italian Opera, and inured to the exact discipline of 'Mr. Costa, under whose direction they had sung the same madrigals at the Covent Garden Opera Concerts. The glee-singers, too—Miss L. Fyne, Miss Dolby, Mr. Swift, Mr. White- house, and Mr. Smith—were very competent to their duty. But the songs, with one or two exceptions, were trivial and vulgar ; and there were a couple of instrumental solos, by foreigners with names never be- fore heard of, and of the most paltry description. Such being the general character of the concert, it is needless to go into details ; but we may ob- serve, that, if the subsequent performances are got up in the same way, those who are attracted by the fine vocal harmony of the great old madri- galista will be repelled by the hacknied and commonplace things with which it is mixed up.
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