PHILHARMONIC CONCERTS.

THE concert of Monday was excellent throughout, and therefore thoroughly enjoyed. There is a certain tone of feeling which, en- gendered by the performance of a fine composition, can only be sus- tained by its parallel: something equally good, though of a different kind, must succeed it, or our musical sympathies are loosened and unstrung. A Sinfonia of BErrnovEs followed by some such trash as " Vivi tu," or any of the thousand and one songs of the same stamp and calibre, casts us down at once from heaven to earth ; and from such a tumble there is no instant recovery. Music in all its might and ampli- tude, genius in its highest efforts, imagination in its brightest visions, passed before us. The divinity of the art was present—we stood in its temple : we bowed at its shrine, grateful and rejoicing. In a moment the spell is broken, the illusion vanishes, and we find ourselves in the Hanover Square Concert-room, listening to a succession of common- place unmeaning passages—the effort of a puny mind, the fit amuse- ment of infant ears. We wish and strive to regain our former state of feeling, but in vain. The pulse may quicken into approbation, but its throb of enthusiasm is gone. The concert of last Monday was of a kind to sustain the tone of musical feeling with which it commenced. There was abundant as well as chosen variety, and every piece was ex- cellent of its kind. To this circumstance may be traced the higher de- gree of gratification which the concert imparted. It was not that indi- vidual pieces of other concerts fell below those of the present scheme, but that the elevation of the entire selection was higher.

THIRD CONCERT—MONDAY, APRIL 18.

ACT I.

Sinfonia in D Minor &WM Rent. and Air, Mr. HOBBS, In native worth' (The

HAYDN. Creation) Concerto, M.S., Violin, Mr. MOL/QOE (first time of per-

formance in this country) itfociunE.

Recit. ed Aria, Mellie Paccisn, " Che filth" (Orfeo) Gums. Overture, The Midsummer Night's Dream MENDELSSOFIN BARTTIOLITY.

ACT II.

Sinfonia in A. No.7 Recit. aud Air, Miss Itairirosru, " Ocean, thou. mighty BEETHOVEN.

monster (Oberon) WEBER. Fantasia. Harp, M. Matsu Aunts (first time of perform

once in this country P. ALVES& Duet, Miss BAINFORTH and Mr. HOBBS, Such the faint

echo" ( Palestine) Dr. Cuomo.

Overture (ZauberAte) Mozarr. Leader, Mr. T. COOKE—Conductor, Mr. Parma.

SPORE'S Sinfonia is one of his most perfect and finished effort& Like BEETHOVEN, SPOHR began his career as an instrumental writer by an adherence to the models which his great predecessors had left, and, like him, he has now ventured to enlarge their former hounds. BEETHOVEN'S maturer efforts were put forth in the world of nature, or rather of matter ; those of SPOHR in that of mind. The one took pas- toral life and manners, or "the pomp and circumstance of glorious war "for his subject; the other the power of music on the mind of childhood, of manhood, and of age, or, more recently, the conflict be- tween the good and evil principle in the mind of man. Their charac- ters appear in these different tendencies, and the tone and temper of their minds. Music is the language in which such men speak, and their Sinfonias, especially, indicate their cast of thought. This is apparent in the two Sinfonias of the present scheme, although in a less degree. Each is the work of an original mind, and they admit of no comparison. The pleasure they afford is of a totally different kind, and neither can fill up the gap which the loss of the other would create. ROMBERG'S Sinfonia of a previous night was a reminiscence rather than a creation: it was MOZART or HAYDN at second-hand. If lost, we should still possess the originals, and the treasury of music would be none the poorer. Not so with BEETHOVEN, and not so with SPORE: lose either, and there is a void which nothing else can supply ; our musical exchequer is to this extent impoverished. The Sinfontas of the former are better known, and therefore better understood: to the latter we have never yet heard complete justice done by any Eng- lish orchestra.

MOLIQUE was welcomed with cordial and deserved enthusiasm. His Concerto was a perfect performance, whether regarded as a composition or a display of violin-playing. There is no instrument which discloses so accurately the character of the performer as the violin—none which is so identified with him, none which equally discovers refinement or reveals vulgarity. MOLIQUE is of the SPORE school of violinists; but tuition, however good, can only impart the mechanical resources of art— it can only enable a man to give a tongue to thought or the power of expression to genius. It can create nothing ; nor can it impart expres- sion or engraft refinement upon the stock of vulgarity. These higher and nobler qualities must be innate; and in MOLIQUE they are. His performance, disdaining all miserable trickery, was altogether delicious. It was heard with breathless attention and received with tumultuous applause.

A harp is usually an orchestral nuisance, and we were quite prepared for half an hour's endurance ; but Mr. ALVERS has raised the cha- racter of his instrument, and proved that a harp concerto may really be heard with pleasure. He is an Englishman, resident for some years at Vienna, where he was not unfrequently heard by THALBERG. The similarity of his passages to those of the celebrated pianoforte-player must have struck every one ; and the general impression doubtless was that ALVERS was the copyist. Such, we understand, is not the fact ; the harpist having written and played his variations on "Da! tuo stellato soglio" before those of THALBElic appeared. He is a most extraordinary player, both as to tone and execution ; and distances in both respects any of his contemporaries that we have heard.

Homis for the first time, had fair play at these concerts ; that is' he had something to sing, not only good, but suited to his powers. His beautiful singing produced its full effect upon the audience, and ob- tained for him the compliment (a very rare one at these concerts) of an encore. GLUCK'S beautiful song was but indifferently sung : Made- moiselle Peccm, though of Italian origin, is French-taught, and has the defects of the French school: the plaintive tenderness of the song was lost in an explosion of noise. Miss RATNPORTH displayed great power in the Scene from Oberon; but it is not fitted for a concert-room, and its removal thither is altogether a mistake. The accompaniment was merciless.

The new Sinfonia of SPORR was expected at this concert ; but, owing to some difference between the appointed Conductor and the Directors, it was not performed. We have heard the facts, and our judgment is quite against the latter.