BENEFIT CONCERTS.
THE only two benefits we can notice this week, are those of Mr. POTTER and Mr. HERZ. The instrumental compositions of the
former should be oftener beard, although he happens to be Eng-
lish; for they are admirable alike in construction and effect. Mr. POTTER is a fine pianoforte-player of the solid school; and his Con- certo proves his knowledge of the resources of the instrument. The greatest treat of the day, perhaps, was the pianoforte Duet played by him and Mr. CRAMER. It was quite perfect. CRAMER maintains his station at the bead of all performers with undimi- nished powers, although he seems to have abandoned his annual concert to make room for his younger competitors. certo proves his knowledge of the resources of the instrument. The greatest treat of the day, perhaps, was the pianoforte Duet played by him and Mr. CRAMER. It was quite perfect. CRAMER maintains his station at the bead of all performers with undimi- nished powers, although he seems to have abandoned his annual concert to make room for his younger competitors.
HERZ is the pianoforte-player for the ladies; so we infer from every concert he has given in London. On Thursday, the room was like a bed of roses, with here and there a weed of male growth rearing itself in sullen state. We like his Concerto in A, which was written, we think, before the curse of variations and quadrilles. fell upon his genius with such blighting effect. Would he get rid of the incubus, and produce a new Concerto—a piece in which the subjects should be the offspring of his own fancy, and not the hackneyed notes of a popular opera—our pleasure in listening to him would be substantial and unalloyed. His Duet played with MOSCHELES was, as a performance, exquisite, but as a composition, was—an air with variations.
The Quatuor was extremely interesting, as it embraced CRAMER, MOSCHELES, Porrsa, and the concert-giver. With such per- formers it was rendered remarkably brilliant and effective ; but it sadly wanted repose : and it, too, was an air with variations— clever, fanciful, and abundantly difficult, but withal beneath the talents employed upon it. HERZ has genius for much higher flights than these pieces of routine: we pray him to call it forth, and produce something new—something worthy of himself and his fame.
We cannot help deprecating the mode adopted by the publishers • of Heaz's music, of thrusting a list of it into every one's hand as he entered the concert-room. It is a species of dictation or intru- sion upon our free choice of music, which, with us at least, would ever produce a contrary effect to that intended. This is in bad enough taste: but when, before we could seat ourselves, we had to remove a placard announcing the unprecedented sale of Gus- tavus the Third (what had it to do with the concert?) and de- nouncing surreptitious copies of it, we can term the mode nothing. better than downright quackery. Ilgaz's music needs no such advertisements as these: and if Gustavus be- so unprecedently popular, why, in the name of success, cushion the concert-room with a fact of which no one can necessarily be ignorant, because every one ought to have, from the style of announcement, at least one copy of the work ?
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