SACRED HARMONIC SOCIETY.
THE performance of :MENDELssonN's St. Paid, in Exeter Hall, on Tuesday evening, by the Sacred Harmonic Society, did honour to the zeal and ability of that spirited institution. When it is considered that it consists of a body of amateurs, who, without any view of pecu- niary emolument, labour to promote the advancement of sacred music, rendering it also auxiliary to charity and benevolence,—and when it is found that they are able to perform the greatest works of the Ger- man school in a manner which, in some important particulars, has never been surpassed in England,—the merit arid value of their exertions can hardly be too highly estimated. Their performance of Tuesday even- ing was by far the best and most successful that they have yet accom- plished. They have, we understand, for months past been making the choruses of St. Paul the subject of weekly study and practice ; and they gave them, on this occasion, with remarkable precision, force, and grandeur of effect. They evidently sang con more—with all their hearts, under the double excitement of the presence of the composer in the gallery, and of an immense audience, who appeared to be not less enthusiastic than themselves.
Of the Oratorio we had occasion to give a full critical opinion last year ; and we shall have the opportunity of revising it next week at Birmingham, under the favourable auspices of the author's con- ducting.
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