played with such an energy and brilliancy as to take ne's breath away. The stillness of the pianos, the gradual and immense range of the crescendos, the thundering power of the fortes, with instantaneous contrasts and startling efortzandos, were enough to work up the feelings to a perfect phrenzy. Wonderfully effective were these ever favorite overtures by Beethoven and Weber.

ye

It was no small attraction of this concert that the piano forte was played by the Fräulein MARIE WIECK, the sister of the celebrated Clara, wife of Robert Schumann. Mdlle. Wieck is a very superior player; she has not the strong hand of a DeMeyer or a Listz, but she has a most finished touch, and plays with great elegance and expression. Her first piece (hear it, oh of the exclusive modern school,) was nothing more nor less than Dussek's 12th Concerto in E flat major, the Adagio and Allegro movements of which she played—a most beautiful composition, elegant and tasteful in the highest degree, played both by the principal and by the orchestra as near perfection as such things can be done. There is nothing in the music to astonish, or to excite wonder or surprise, but there is that in it which is adapted to call forth perfect delight. It is full of peace, and innocence, and purity, and joy, and it is from beginning to end a constant appeal to the perception of the beautiful. I am no enemy to the modern school; it is indispensable to an accomplished pianist, and every well-educated musician will delight in it; but they err who suppose that in Clementi and Cramer and Dussek and Pleyel, there is nothing good or worth being saved. The fact is, the pianists, previous to him who is generally regarded as the head of the great modern school, had worked out a very satisfactory solution of the problem of piano forte playing, or certainly so if considered with reference to the more natural and legitimate powers of the instrument. Thal

berg, Listz, and others, have certainly much enlarged the boundaries, or the available capacities of the piano, but some of their followers have gone to extremes; so much so that there has seemed to be danger of losing altogether the ordinary effects of piano forte playing, or that they would he swallowed up in the extraordinary feats of left-hand melodies, flights of octaves, and the various methods by which amazement and wonder are excited. Thanks for the signs of returning soberness and good sense; we greatly mistake if other authors like Dussek are not yet to be brought back to the concert room, and to the parlor, to fill with delight the spirit of the true lover of music, and of the most beautiful of all keyed instruments, the piano forte.

A word to another class. There are some who condemn altogether the modern school, and who seem to suppose that all true musical genius left the world with Haydn and those of his day. Fräulein WIECK is not of their number, for while she played Dussek, in the first part of the concert, she played not Thalberg, or Listz, or DeMeyer in the second part, but Pagannini! Yes, the Carnival of Venice, arranged for the piano, and if music pleased legitimately in Dussek, the Fräulein excited no small degree of feeling by her exquisite touch, and facility of execution in the composition of the Prince of violinists. What if it be mere trickery; a dexterous artifice will always, at least, call forth admiration, and one does not always want to sit in sober judgment, and decide on the grounds of intrinsic musical merit-relaxation must be indulged, the beautiful give way to the ornamental, and true pleasure to mere amusement. If there is a time for all things, surely there is room enough for the old and new school of piano forte playing-yes, and for both schools of organ playing too, although this is not the place to dwell upon the latter.

There was still another interesting feature in the Euterpe

Concert-it was the singing of Mdlle. LOUISE WOLFL. She sang an air from Stradella by Flotow, and also two German songs, the latter by Franz Schubert. A pretty singer, but not superior to several American vocalists.

The principal point of interest in the concerts here, to an American, seems to be the excellence of the orchestral performThis satisfies.

ance.

LETTER VI.

Gewandhaus Concert-Julius Rietz-Harman's new Symphony-Cherubini-Beethoven

-Rossini-Mendelssohn.

LEIPZIG, January 30, 1852.

PERHAPS there is not a series of subscription concerts in the world of a deservedly higher reputation than that of the Gewandhaus, Leipzig; and this is equally true both in relation to the character of the music selected, and the manner in which it is performed. The circumstances under which these concerts are produced are highly favorable, and cannot fail, ordinarily, to lead to the most happy results. The room is neither too large nor too small, though, perhaps, its dimensions might be somewhat extended without injury. The concerts are universally popular; the lovers of music are always there; everybody who loves music, and can procure a ticket, is engaged on Thursday evening, and the many professors of music (including those of the Conservatory), the musical students, and the critics, with all the piano forte ladies, and all other musical ladies, are there. They go, too, for musical purposes; not so much to see or be seen as to listen to the productions of the

great composers, or to those of some young aspirant for musical fame, who is so fortunate as to obtain the consent of the gov ernment to the performance of his works. Expectation is awake, and good music, well done, is looked for and demanded by the large and intelligent audience. Indeed, the Gewandhaus Concert is a kind of high school, where taste is formed in the young, and perfected in the old, and where the knowledge of musical science, the appreciation and love of musical art, and the general state and progress of both, are made manifest.

It may be regarded also as a tribunal, the approval of which is a sure passport to the young performer; for he who can give satisfaction here, need not fear to appear before any truly enlightened audience in the world. This last remark, however, it may be necessary to receive with some restriction applied to the students of the "Conservatorium der Musik," to whom there is sometimes an indulgence extended amounting almost to partiality or favoritism, They are as children, and what parent can see the faults of his child? The members of the orchestra may all be regarded as solo players; every instrument is well played, and every performer is capable of executing the most difficult passages at once, so that a single rehearsal only is necessary, even for a new complicated symphony-and that not for anything belonging to the technics of art, but only for the higher points of taste and expression. The Conductor (Julius Rietz) is a thorough musician of the German school, a man of much experience, who has the full confidence of the members of the orchestra and of the musical community. He is well acquainted with the works of the best composers, and knows how to bring them out in the careful observance of all those little nice points of delicacy and taste, upon which the highest and best effect depends. The rehearsals are private and exclusive; they are thorough, but not tedious. Indeed it is but

necessary to name the point, or to describe with accuracy the effect desired, when the finger, the bow, or the embouchure, responds immediately to the conductor's conception of the passage, and the ideal becomes real.

The orchestra being well prepared at the rehearsal, the conductor's duty becomes a very simple one at the performance; hence there are no violent gesticulations, stampings, bowings or see-sawings of the head, scraping of the feet, or showing off of the baton, but all is calm and quiet, and a simple indication of the time, with some slight occasional variations for different forms of dynamic effect, is all that is necessary. A thorough knowledge of music and of composition, an acquaintance with the capacity of every instrument and its proper use and effect, a perfect control of time, decision, firmness, entire self-possession and control, gentleness of manner, affability, courtesythese are among the indispensable requisites in a conductor, and these our Gewandhaus conductor seems to possess.

Are not the circumstances then (some of which have been mentioned) so favorable as to justify the patrons of these concerts in expecting and demanding a high degree of perfection in the performances?

The concert last evening was, perhaps, inferior to the general average. A principal point of attraction is always found in the Symphony, and on this occasion it was not a Mozart, a Beethoven, or a Mendelssohn, but an original manuscript composition of a member of the Orchestra, Ferd. Hermann, that was performed. Herr Hermann directed his own Symphony. It did not meet with a very warm reception, though sufficiently so to afford good encouragement to the author and his friends. There is always so much caution and incredulity, and sometimes suspicion, envy and jealousy abroad, that the path to fame, even to true merit, is rough and beset with difficulties.