CONCERTS.
The season of the Ancient Concerts ended on Wednesday. The last concert was under the direction of the Duke of Wellington, for the Earl of Westmoreland. Little pains had been taken in the selection of the music; which, with slight exceptions, consisted of pieces familiar to the frequenters of these concerts. There were compositions it is true, of the greatest masters—Handel, Mozart, Gluck, Cimarosa, and Beethoven; but the practice of the Directors has been to take two or three pieces of each master, and repeat these season after season,—taking them this year be- cause they were taken the last. Of Handel, we have a few chorines and songs, repeated to triteness; of Gluck, a scene or two from Orpheus or Iphigenia; of Mozart, airs or duets from his operas, which everybody knows by heart. In their voluminous works there are a thousand beau- tiful things which are never thought of ; and there are numbers of great musicians whose works are never heard at all. Could it be believed that in our great national concert of Ancient Music the very name of Purcell has not once appeared in the books of a whole season? And when this il- lustrious master's name does now and then appear, it is only in connexion with two or three of his songs which have become quite familiar and common."
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