THE ANCIENT CONCERTS.
FOUR years ago, we pointed out, at considerable length, the de- fects and abuses which existed in the management of these con- certs, and the remedies which they required. We also predicted their gradual and not very distant extinction, without such an effi- cient reformation. Our advice was met by abuse, our predictions with a sneer. It is not to indulge any feeling of malignant triumph, but simply to show who was right, that we announce their present state. - The performers usually engaged at the Ancient Concerts were summoned to a meeting last week, in order to receive a communi- cation from the Directors : the substance of which was, that the number of subscribers had fallen off last year still further—that the receipts did not meet the expenses by 1,8001.—that a larger decrease had taken place in the subscription-list of the present year—and that, without a very considerable reduction in the sala- ries of the performers, the concerts must be given up. It also appeared that the Archbishop of YORK, although willing to let his name stand as one of the Directors, declined to take any active share in the management, and that a similar wish to retire was expressed by Lords DERBY, FORTESCUE, and CAWDOR. This would leave the Duke of CUMBERLAND and Lord BURGHERSH sole Directors, as there appeared no chanceof recruiting the noble list. Some promise of reform was held out, in case it were pos- sible to keep together for the present season. Had our advice been taken in time, the Ancient Concerts would have been restored to a healthy, vigorous state of existence. It is now too late, and their doom is sealed. No reduction of sala- ries will change the character of the concerts ; and, unless this had been effected, any other effort to save them would have been unavailing. The Directors have resolutely resisted every attempt at improvement : they thought to carry on their work by influence and power; wrapped up in their own aristocratical pride and self- conceit, and flattered by the small party which surrounded them, they scouted the principle of reform; and, having brought the concern into this pitiable state, they turn round on the Band and cry aloud to them to help them. This is a sad humiliation. Think of the VERNONS and STANLEYS and FORTESCUES and CAWDORS, proposing to a number of hard-working professional men to throw off something from their engagements 2—cribbing three shillings a piece from the violins, and eighteenpence from the chorus-singers ! We never contemplated such a degradation as this. The manly, the proper, the dignified course for such men . would have been to have said—" We see, that in the present ad- vanced stage of musical science, we are incompetent to the guid- ance of a public concert : time was when the Ancient Concerts were serviceable in directing the national taste—their purpose has been answered, their destiny is accomplished, and we resign our task into younger and abler hinds." Their exit wouldthen have been a.respectable one. Alas! what is it now?
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