MR. VAUGHAN'S CONCERT.
IN former years, we have had occasion to notice, with some surprise, the surrender which Mr. VAUGHAN, who stands at the head of one de- partment of English vocal music, should have made of his own judg- ment into the hands of the fashionable singers of the day. We expect that DE BEGNIS, Tonal, GorniLut, ct id genus 011500, in their an- nual drafts upon the pockets of their patrons, should assemble around them the Italian brotherhood, and treat their hearers with the delights of" Pappataci," " Crutla sorte," and the like. This is quite in charac- ter. But from a man of Mr. VAUGHAN'S standing and good taste, we expect better things, and this year we have had them. With a just confidence in the intrinsic power of classical music, and especially of those branches of it which lie has cultivated so long and so successfully, he placed in the front of his scheme last night, the Last Judgment of Spotlit, and enriched it with some compositions of standard excellence, and others of novelty. The singers were the same as had been lately engaged in the performance of the Oratorio at the Philharmonic, and the principal instrumentalists were the same also ; but the want of the same conductor was felt throughout. The band seemed, occa- sionally, uncertain as to the time of some of the pieces, the whole of which had been controlled by Sir GEORGE SMART with the strictest accuracy. Some of the " gentlemen of the chorus," both young and old, might have been spared with advantage to the performance. But it was, altogether, such a demonstration of the power and majesty of this most original and extraordinary work, as would have thoroughly de- lighted us, had we not been present at the Philharmonic. The guar. tett was again encored.
The first act of the concert was Closed by a Benedictus by EYBLER ; pleasing as to its melody, but as a specimen of canon, immeasurably in- ferior to our Hoasim's adaptation of the same words. The glee of Sir JOHN ROGERS, "O how I long my careless limbs to lay," is a composi-
tion which any musician might have been proud to have written. It had, as might be expected from the accomplished author's madrigalian
attachments, a strong and rich flavour of AIORLEY and WILLIE. Mr. KNYVETT also launched an elegant new glee, and Mr. HORNCASTLE an excellent catch.
The room was crowded, a sufficient evidence that music like that which Mr. VAUGHAN, on this occasion, offered to the public, has not lost its hold on their attention.
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