PHILHARMONIC CONCERTS.

THE third concert was on Monday night, and a more satisfactory per- formance from first to last we have seldom heard ; not that it offered much of novelty, but the pieces were well chosen and well arranged. There was nothing to depress the musical temperature—no sudden risings and fallings of the barometer—it was " set fair" almost all the evening.

shaman in A (No.7) Air. Mr. BALM "Tears or sorrow "(The erneifixitm) Adagio and Allegro. Clarinet, Mr. WILLMAN &VIM, Mrs. Wuon, Si, In WOO (Faust) Overture, MS.,Cyroheline (first time of performance)

ACT U.

Einfonia (in 0 Minor) MOZART.

Cunt at a,'Nt rats MASSON... Ombra del earn bone" IlAvorr.

Quartetto (in F. Op. 801 two Violins, Viola, and Slant.

cello. Messrs. Lonsn, WATTS. TOMISCQUR, and LINDLET HAYDN. Tersetto, Mrs. Wow', Miss MASSON, and Mr. BALVE,. Esci, artist "( Le Muse di Figaro)

Overture. Lutleibket

Leader, Mr. MORI—Conductor, Mr. POTTIIII. The Sinfonias belong to the annual list; and a yearly exercise of the orchestra upon them has disciplined every performer into a thorough

ACT 1.

REF:mos/Is.

Sr01111. WEBER. Stunt POTTER.

MOSART. CUIRUSINI.

acquaintance with their various characteristic excellences ; some rough- ness or imperfection gradually disappears at each successive trial, and beauties, once unperceived, rise into notice and admiration. The ex- quisite slow movement in BEETHOVEN'S Sinfunia was encored. We missed often during the concert, but here especially, poor Nieuwe. SON'S flute. Among his faults, no one could number a want of per- ception to what was refined in music. He often gave a reading of his own to passages in the Sinfonias of Mozaur and BEETHOVEN, and it

was always a right one. He bad evidently studied not his own part merely but the composition as a whole. lie gave to the flute riot only

a more extensive range than any of his predecessors, but a more varied and expressive character. By what manceuvre has it come to pass that CARD, who has so frequently been NICHOLSON'S efficient substitute, is not now his successor ; and that RIBAS, a player in no respect his superior. has been placed over his head? POTTER'S Overture is, we presume, intended to be founded on the play after which it is named : but we could not follow the composer. WEistm's Overture to Euryanthe is the true Overture to Cymbeline. There, we have no difficulty in tracing the tenderness and the constancy of Postimmus, the unshaken fidelity of Imogen, the dark and transient triumph of lachimo, and the exultation which follows the detection of his villanoua design. Wrnsat was a reader of SHAK- SPEARE. and lie had read bin, to some purpose when be wrote his Euryanthe. An overture to a play of SHAKSPEARE'S is a bold work— it must be something like—something upon a level with the play itself: a perilous enterprise for the musician to embark in, and one which few can successfully hazard. If Mr. POTTER has failed, this must be his consolation. His overture, regarded merely as a musical composition, will neither add to nor detract from his well-earned re- putation—he is only mistaken when he says " I mean to call up Shakspeare before you." WILLMAN'S fragment of a Concerto, or rather of two different Con- certos, was charmingly played, and loudly applauded : and so was the Quartet of HAYDN. The spell which bound together only a certain number of quartett players seems now broken; for LODER as well as BLACROVE is admitted within the circle,—a compliment which, it is clear, ought long since to have been paid him. Few men of the present day understand the style of Havots's Quartets better than LODER; and a more perfect and delightful performance of its kind we have seldom heard.

The sensation which SPOIIR'S new Oratorio has produced (for throughout the profession, and among all other competent judges, there is but one opinion of its merits,) will probably lead to its dissection ; and we expect that beautiful fragments will continue to be torn front this splendid work and exhibited at successive concerts. This is to be regretted ; for there is not a single piece in it but is dovetailed into the work—of which no more idea can be formed from the performance of a detached air, than of the proportions of a house from seeing one of its bricks. But it is thus that the English usually deal with great works of art ; and Srorta must not expect exemption from the common lot of his brethren. Honour be to them who have treated him as he deserves. The performance of BaLrE's song was a sufficient proof how much such a composition must suffer by being torn from its con- nexion. There, it expresses the deep remorse of Peter, and its per- formance in the oratorio was strictly in accordance with its true chits racter ; but, turned into a detached concert song, the same singer gives it a different movement—in order, as he thinks, to render it attractive to general ears. This it might be, but it ceased to be the song that SPOIL& had written.

Mrs. WOOD was welcomed with cordial greetings, and she sung her favourite Scena from FAUST with unabated energy, often with most feli- citous expression. But, as a piece of singing, HAYDN'S Cantata was the best of the evening. This must have been one of his early productions, for it has none of his peculiarities, and is written after the manner of the popular Italian composers of that time : neither is the score his, we are sure. Few singers could have made such a stand in it as Miss MASSON. The Terzetto (a fragment of the first finale in Figetro) was performed by the orchestra, and accompanied, often inaudibly, by the singers. The Philharmonic band seem to lose no opportunity of making singers feel that they are but subordinate persons there.

BEETHOVEN's long Sinfunia is to be performed at the next concert, and we presume will occupy the entire first act.