The seventh Philharmonic concert, on Monday last, notwithstanding the total
absence of novelty in the programme, has been unanimously pronounced the best and most successful of the season. Mozart and Beethoven furnished the symphonies ; Weber and Rossini the overtures. All the vocal pieces were well-known favourites. Everything was good, and admirably performed ; and the crowded audience did not seem to be at all displeased to find themselves throughout the evening "en pays de connaissance." The singers were Madame, Castellan, Gardoni, and Formes.
Several of the minor societies—the Musical Union, the English Glee and Madrigal Union, and the Beethoven Quartet Society—have had con- certs this week. Vieuxtemps and Madame Pleyel were the lion and Ronne of the Musical Union. They played Beethoven's piano and violin sonata in F most exquisitely, and each played a solo. Vieuxtemps—who has been resident at Petersburg for some years, and is returned a greater per- former than ever—played Tartini's famous Sonata del Diavolo ; and this musical curiosity was found to be a piece not only of enormous difficulty but of extraordinary beauty. Vieuxtempa, we learn, is engaged for the last Philharmonic concert.
Among the multitudinous benefit concerts, the most notable have been —Osborne's, on Monday morning, at which he performed, with Piatti, a new sonata of his own for the piano and violoneello,—a composition of great merit ; Messrs. Mellon, Pratten, and Hausmann's, on Tuesday morning,—a good orchestral concert ; and Mr. Brinley Richsuels's, Madame Lozano's, and Mr. Frank Bodda's, on Wednesday. All these concerts, and several others, were well attended ; the musical tide being at the full just now, and, we presume, about to turn.
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