LA SOCIETA .ARMONICA.
THIS is an association of instrumental amateurs, who meet for the agreeable purpose of amusing themselves and their friends by the performance of Sinfonias and Overtures ; and who, to make the exhibition more -worth attention, very prudently, engage a professional leader, and competent wind instruments, cementing their band by the Basso e Contra Basso of LINDLEY and DRAGONETTI. We cannot deal with such a society as we should with one consisting of professors : we expect aberrations from time and tune, .and, therefore, are not surprised to find them : but we would suggest to the managers, or directors, that their .orchestra would be more efficient, if more select. Orchestras, like gardens, often stand in need of weeding ; in both cases, vigorous and valuable plants -are choked and impaired by their association with such as are useless or noxious. In a band, no one can be merely harmless. the young gentleman who is placed there with a violin under his chin, thinks it necessary to show that he plays something; and, if the passages of his author are beyond his reach, he changes them for his own; and thus the orchestra, which is strong to the eye, is weak or offensive to the ear.
The last concert of the season was on Monday evening; and it was sufficiently manifest that SPOHR'S Sinfonia in E flat was beyond the reach of many of the performers. It would therefore 'have been wiser to have selected some instrumental composition of less difficulty, or to have imposed silence on all incompetent players. Mr. FORBES appears to be the conductor of these con,certs ; and his Fantasia on the Pianoforte was a severe satire on the taste of his audience. FORBES is a player of no common powers ; and there are few compositions for his instrument which he is not able to execute most satisfactorily : yet he deliberately 'chose the very worst we ever heard. It was the work of M. Pros, and far below the general average of his trashy productions. A -Concerto for two Flutes, performed by BERBIGUIER and RIBAS, pleased us more than any instrumental piece of the evening. The vocal pieces, which consisted of threadbare concert-room hacks— such as " Parlar,'spiegar,' " Languir per una belle," "Se un istante," (probably the worst duet ever written), and " Crudel "— may be passed over in silence.
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