Mr. Hullah's performance of The Messiah, at St. Martin's Hall
on Wednesday, was a restoration of the composer's original text ; replacing several -pieces usually omitted, giving some airs to the voices for which they were intended, and, above all, discarding every note which has been added to Handers own scare. The experiment was founded on an ex- cellent principle, that the works of a great master should be preserved in all their purity. But few principles, however general, are of universal application; and the present, we think with some of the critics who have preceded us, is a case in which the principle may in some rcepects be legitimately departed from. In regard to the propriety of restoring the second parts of "He was despised," "How beautiful are the feet," and " 31/satrap:wet/Ian egnand," there can scarcely be two opinions, though the public have been so long
accoetomed to the mutilation of these airs that they have ceased-to notice it. The resortipp of.V 4qt,jwho ,may abide , t ,his coming,", usually sun bf atlass, Iti per+diie, decal an immense
improvement ; and this air' adnnrably sung by ams, was one
of the finest features of the , Re ormauge. eat improvement was the doing away with thd a-arrant *tion of the first
part of "He shall . feed his lock" tly Mae lb ntriltdie &akin-64 being sung, is Mandel.hitended, hi theasanse-heyj enalbyinwb sapianoso .i•But Mr. Mullah's strict adherence hi*. originalseeettenictintenenpebt is more_questionrible: The usual devintione , groin. ikeosisist, itAisiAratj _place, of Mosart's.nolchrated ditiona1 see mpanif of the.parta 44c&by modernaronnuctorsi git9 t Tff PN'OhnR11931 of effect. These must by no means be ;.co` It is an error to Suppose that, in peaai , •ders oratorios frotti his ovin:prin,t9O'Sygry.S.swcs Per 9,1141 €119111Y, ` time. ..Iptitnclel km! w,4.1 9'PRAI .1?.(1 ii4 well known that he filled up those rich win -wstrinnent ha min h he conceived in is 'Wm), but never Wrinte'llOWn; from 'Ask' or being aware of the incapacity of his orehestins to peochice"tliblin sufficient delicacy. When Handel did not liettitilly 'fat organist, under his immediate direction, tees able to 'lib ne.lie later organists have not been indiscreet enough to make such an attempt; and all they do is to fill up the chords from the figured bass. Mendels- sohn, who (in the preface to his magnificent edition of Israel in Egypt) describes Handers manner of filling up on the organ the wind-instru- ment effects which he had not written down, says that the wind-instru- ment orchestral parts were added in Vienna because they could not be supplied on the organ. Handers slight score of The .hressialt, then, was a sketch which he used to colour in the act of performance; and Mozart's soft., delicate, and delicious combinations of flutes, oboes; bassoons, and horns, are in truth the kind of colouring which Handel Used to supply. Mozart made the slightest possible use of the brass instruments, and in
the choruses left the score very nearly as he found it. • : - •
But modern conductors have proceeded very differently : "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." They seem to have but one idea of in- strumentation, and that is derived from the Operahousefroui the -frugue- note or the Prophate. Every part of the original score is doubled, trebled, or quadrupled, by different instruments playing in unison; the bass, es- pecially, is brayed by a whole legion of trombones and ; and the treble voices are strengthened (otherwise drowned) by the shrill screaming of the trumpet. And this process is carried on from the be- ginning to the end of the oratorio-----airs, concerted pieces, choruses, and
all. The instruments are everything, the voices nothing: " •
The 'relief from this din, which Mr. Mullah afforded on Wednesday evening, Was not only most grateful, but highly conducive to the power and grandeur of the choruses. Accompanied by the stringed instruments only, with a few notes of the trumpet to produce an occasional effect, the voices were fully and distinctly heard ; and the admirable quality of Mr. Mullah's choral band was placed in the strongest light. But in the airs, the want of Mozart's charming harmonies was sadly'. felt, and deprived this part of the performance (notwithstanding the excellence of the singing) of much of its interest. Mr. Hullah will probably reconsider this matter.
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