24 AUGUST 1839, Page 14

NORWICH MUSICAL FESTIVAL.

Srona has written to announce his intended arrival in England on the 9th September. His stay in London will, of course, be very short, as the rehearsal of the Norwich Festival is on the lfith. There have been two rehearsals of his oratorio recently in the Hanover Square Rooms, at which all the principal singers and the London instrumentalists were present ; and we learn front the Norfolk Chronicle that "the resident chorus and band, to the number of 250, meet for their usual practice every Monday night, and that separate drillings of smaller divisions take place every Wednesday and Friday." And this is the true path to eminence and success. The great imperfection of all our first per- formances is the want of sufficient rehearsals. The first hail-score representations of' a new opera or a new oratorio are usually but so many rehearsals. The Norwich Festivals, on the contrary, are dis- tinguished for their well-matured plans, and their diligent preparation, no less than for their active and zealous enterprise. Every successive festival brings out some new work of high eminence—seine composi- tion destined to form an important addition to our stock of sacred Music. The presence of SPOHR, to place himself at their head, is the surest and most unequivocal proof of the reputation of the Norwich orchestra.