THE PHILHARMONIC CONCERTS.

THE concert of Monday night was below the average excellence of the season, and may be dismissed with very little comment.

ACT r.

Overture, Fidelio BEETHOVEN.

Resit... Eli parte" .... 1 Miss Discs MOEMIT. Aria, •• Per pieta " (Cosi fax Tate) Concerto, Pianoforte. in G Minor, Madame Ova: S F. Mmenet.snottx

( BARTHOLDY.

Resit. " Chi per pieta". Madame CAEADORT ALLAN COLUMBA.

Aria, '' Deli I parlate ".

Overture, Jessoada SPORE.

ACT If.

Sinfonia in A Minor (No.3) F. MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLOY. Itecit. •• Fast into the wa% es," 1—

ur. Wants Sir 11. It. Bailor.

Air, " Stern monarch of the *kinds."

Concerto, Violin. Signor CAMILLO &vont Sworn.

Dttetto. " Come ti place." Madame CARADOEI ALLAN and Miss II:acu (La Clemenza di Tito) llosART.

Overture in D A. %Ammo.

Leader, Mr. F. CRAMEE—Couductor, Mr. Lucas.

We are sorry to see the practice of substituting an Overture for a Sinfonia as the first piece persevered in. This is no reform, but a

perilous innovation. It marks a downward progress in the character of these concerts, and, if persisted in, will accelerate their fall. An Overture is merely the prelude to an Opera or Oratorio—something intended to indicate the character of another and more important work, or to present in brief its prominent melodies. A Sinfonia is the highest work of instrumental art ; it is a work complete and entire in itself—a creation of the highest difficulty and noblest attainment ; a Sinfonia is, in fact, the instrumental epic. One Sinfonia of first-rate and esta- blished excellence should always be found in a Philharmonic scheme: if others of lower rank are allowed to find a place there, they should be secondary—never sole. Such was not the arrangement of the present scheme, in which appears a Sinfonia of MENDELSSOHN, (in addition to a Concerto,) and only an Overture of BEETHOVEN. Madame BELVILLE OURY played with the execution and expression of a finished artist. The Morning Chronicle is at a loss to understand how it has happened that this lady has not played at these concerts before : perhaps for the same reason that BENEDICT, MALL/calm, and Houma have been excluded.

Signor &volts played again, and with more decided success. His power over the violin seems unbounded ; and the cravings of those who thirst for the marvellous must have been abundantly gratified. Like PAGANINI, he calls forth sounds of all sorts—divine, human, animal, almost infernal—from his instrument. It alternately sings, squalls, shrieks, howls, moans, and groans. It breathes the wail of sorrow and clamour of rage—the sweetest accents of the human voice are succeeded by a colleen of cats. Let it not be supposed, however, that &atom can accomplish nothing higher or better than an exhibition of tricks on the violin : he is, in truth, an accomplished artist, who indulges John Bull's love of the surprising in public, but who in private display a true knowledge of what is really great in his art, and an ardent love of it.

In the last concert we bad two mezzo-soprano voices—in this, two sopranos ; and of course there was little attempt at vocal combination, or little power of effecting it. Songs a-piece is the inevitable result of such an arrangement. We have often regretted that BISHOP should have been compelled to hear or to conduct vocal compositions so much inferior to his own : we now rejoice that the spell is broken, and that an English name appears in the vocal part of the scheme. His Scene, " Fast into the waves," is worthy of admission into any concert. It was well sung by Mr. WEISS; whose fine powerful voice told very effectively through the tempestuous roar of the last movement.