THE BACH SOCIETY.
The Bach Society is a body of eminent professional musicians, whose bond of union is a genuine love of their art, and whose special object is the study and practice of the great choral works of John Sebastian Bach, with the view of bringing them to the knowledge of the English public. They have bestowed their attention chiefly upon Bach's great sacred work, the " Passions-Musik," an oratorio on the Passion of our Saviour. After several years' preparation, they ventured upon a public performance of it last season ; but, being somewhat premature, it was imperfect, and seemingly far from successful. Yet it left its impression : for when the So- ciety, after further preparation and with enlarged resources, again brought the same work before the public, last Tuesday evening, the Hanover Square Rooms were filled to the doors with an audience comprehending the most musical people in London. *Under the able direction of Mr. Stern- dale Bennett, and with the assistance of several good solo-singers and a small but select chorus and orchestra, the music was executed in a man- ner which delighted everybody, and surprised those who were aware of the arduous nature of the task : for Bach's music, unlike that of Handel hie great contemporary, is difficult in the extreme, being full of chro- matic harmonies and modulations, and loaded with minute and laborious details, which, like the intricate tracery of a Gothic edifice, do not im- peir the sublimity of the whole. It is in the works of Bach that we find the source from which Spohr has derived the peculiarities of his style. After this successful essay, we have no doubt the progress to popularity will now go steadily on.
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