3L 115 It.
Notwithstanding the brightness of the new star that has risen in the Haymarket, it is time that it were viewed under some other aspect. It is time that Mademoiselle Titiens appeared in some other opera than the Huguenots. Her Valentine it is true, is a grand and affecting performance, and its attraction Valentine, hitherto been undiminished ; but it is not good to do what is too often done by managers—to keep the same thing before the public till thinner houses and colder audiences give warning of the necessity of change. It is now desirable that Titicns should appear in some of the other great characters,—Donna Anna, or Fidelio, or Norma, or Lucrezia Borgia,—in which she is said to be preeminent. Her next part, we believe, is to be Leonora, in the Trovatore, a character, doubtless, of great tragic capabilities ; but her lofty and classical style, as a singer, demands a higher and purer de- scription of music than anything in the l'rovatore—or anything that has ever been produced by its author.
The principal concert of the week has been that of the Philharmonic Society, on Monday. In addition to its usual attractions, it derived peculiar interest from the appearance of the celebrated violinist Joachim, who has revisited London after an absence of six years. He VMS then, though young, one of the greatest performers of his day ; he is now with matured genius and powers, the very greatest performer of his de:3r. He played Beethoven's concerto for the violin, the great master's only work of this class, and a work of incomparable excellence, in which the violin, while it is blended with the harmonies of the band, stands out., as it were, front the orchestral background in figures of con- summate brilliancy and beauty. His execution of this grand work was listened to with astonishment and delight, and the most experienced amateurs agreed that they had heard nothing comparable to it since
P rs time.
On the following day Joachim again appeared, at the concert of the Musical Union in St. James's Hall; where, in the performance of a quartet of Mozart and a quintet of Beethoven, he showed himself a com- plete master of the delicacies and refinements of the chamber style of music. As an instrumental performer, Joachim will be the lion of the seaaon.
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