THE CONCERTI DA CAMERA.
TIIESE concerts promise to be very successful. The second, which took place last Saturday evening, was attended by a numerous and
highly-musical audience; and the projectors of the concerts, en- couraged by so favourable a reception, intend, as we are informed, to give another series after the close of the present. The result, we trust, will be the establishment of a permanent and flourishing society. The two concerts which have already taken place have given ample assurance of the judgment and ability of the professors engaged in them. The music, without exception, has been of the most classical order ; and has been performed with an intelligence, force, and deli-
cacy, which leave nothing to be desired. At these two concerts, we have heard some of the finest chamber compositions of BEETHOVEN, MOZART, SPOIIR, ONSLOW, and MENDELSSOHN. Among these have been two of BEETHOVEN'S celebrated Rasournoffsky Quartets; which,
we believe, had never (except in Germany) been played before an audi- ence; professional performers having hitherto avoided them—even at the Philharmonic Society—on the pretext that they would be caviare to the multitude, but really from the want of disposition to bestow the
requisite degree of labour and study upon their perfortnance. A friend of ours heard one of them attempted a few years ago in Paris, at a
private musical party, by professors of the first eminence. It was con- fusedly scrambled over ; and at the conclusion of the middle move- ment the books were thrown aside by common consent, and with an air that indicated no desire ever to open them again. Now this music is listened to with exclamations of heartfelt delight ; and this arises much less from any improvement in the taste of the audience than from the increased capacity of the players ; for BEarimovEx's grand
and beautiful ideas, though difficult to be expressed, are, when expressed, very easily understood. When a set of excellent performers, therefore, sit down to make themselves thoroughly masters of these incomparable works, so as to bring them before the public in all their beauty, they entitle themselves to the gratitude of every lover of music.
Every amateur quartet-player ought to attend these concerts; be- cause he will obtain from them notions of finish and refinement which
be can have no means of gaining elsewhere. Any amateur performer, who does not eagerly embrace such an opportunity of instruction and pleasure, may think himself a lover of music, but he may rely on it that he loves nothing but the scraping of his own fiddle. Our pianoforte- players, too, have the same means of improvement; and it gives vs much pleasure to observe that ladies form so large a portion of the audience.
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