The Committee of the Sacred Harmonic Society, who have the
direc- tion of the approaching Handel Commemoration Festival at the Crystal Palace, have published a detailed programme of their arrangements. The Festival is to be held on the 20th, 22d, and 24th of June. On the first day The Messiah will be performed; on the second a miscellaneous selection including the Dettingen Te Deism ; on the third, Israel in Egypt. The orchestra in the grand transept is to be so much extended as to be capable of accommodating nearly Four Thousand performers, a number quite unprecedented in this country; while means (which are minutely detailed) are being taken, by surrounding the vast area with a boarded enclosure, covering it with a roof, and other expedients, to improve the acoustical properties of what may be called the Concert-hall, and to remove the defects complained of in 1857—want of strength in the general body of sound, and the indistinctness, often amounting to in- audibility, of the individual voices. The Handelian entertainments of the Commemoration week will not be limited to the above performances on the regular Festival days. After each performance the wind bands will execute, in the grounds, marches, minuets, and other compositions by Handel, including the celebrated " Water Music " ; and on the in- termediate days selections from Handers Italian Operas and Secular works will be performed. This is a happy thought; for these extra performances will have great effect in giving the publican idea of the vast variety of the mighty master's powers. e scale of prices of admission seems, as far as we can remember, to be similar to that of 1857. Considering the immense expenditure they will be deemed suffi- ciently moderate.
Previous page
