Among the tolerated entertainments of Passion week, musical perform- ances
are conspicuous. On Monday night there was a conglomeration of concerts. Mr. Allcroft had one of his "monsters" in the now deserted' Lyceum ; where a great assemblage feasted their ears from seven o'clock till midnight with an enormous banquet of music contributed by a multitude of vocal and instrumental performers, and applauded every thing with inde- fatigable perseverance and impartial enthusiasm. At the same time and a short way off, there was another concert of a very different kind, given by Mr. Alfred Mellon, a gentleman rising into eminence as one of the best musicians and ablest orchestral conductors of the day. The society organized by him under the name of the Orchestral Union, and composed entirely of eminent performers, constituted the orchestra on this occasion, reinforced so as to be about fifty strong. They played Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony with as much power as could be desired, and with a delicacy scarcely ever met with. Mendelssohn's overture to Buy Blatt, and an excellent overture of Mr. Mellon's own, were played not less admirably. Several fine vocal pieces were sung by Clara Novello and Formes; and solos on the violin and the pianoforte were played by M. Sainton and Mr. Cusine. The whole was a real treat to a large and musical audience.
At Exeter Hall on Tuesday evening the London Sacred Harmonic Society performed Elijah. It was on the same absurdly monster scale as usual ; for this society insist on outbidding the rival establishment by e hundred performers ; and the consequence of such a gathering—many of them untrained amateurs—was the usual noise and confusion in the choruses. The principal vocal parts were committed to singers all of whom except Miss Birch were incompetent, and most of them mere de- butante. Elijah, however, always attracts, and the hall was well filled..
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