Ballad Concert: 4th

“After all, blood is thicker than water, and nothing is more truly acceptable to the general public than English music, especially the music of that olden time, when our fathers yet dwelt in the ‘old home,’ and which is as much ours by inheritance as are Shakespeare and Milton. This was proved in New-York three years ago by the immense success of the Glee and Madrigal concerts, and Mr. George Dolby has done a good work in supplying to the public, on a professional basis, those productions of our own composers which always give so much real pleasure, but for which we have hitherto been dependent on the rather fitful enthusiasm of amateurs. The four ballad concerts given this last week also served to introduce to us one singer of power and reputation, quite beyond merely national or special standards.

Mr. Santley is essentially a modern singer, and his style is in the highest degree refined and cosmopolitan. Possessing a baritone voice, that latest of musical innovations, he combines the powers of the old basso cantante and the old tenore robusto. His style derives strength from his native capacity for work, joined to that fine appreciation of the composer’s intention which is the result of the present advanced state of musical knowledge; while the last touch of modern culture is shown by the sort of subdued fire with which he sings, making one feel that there always a reserve of force behind. Simple, manly, self-restrained, he melts into tenderness or rises into grandeur by an almost imperceptible change of tone, and rouses his audience to that pitch of enthusiasm which is only evoked by genuine passion.

There are three paths open to the English or American singer; he may confine himself to the music of his own race and language, delighting his hearers, but ranking only as a ‘ballad singer;’ he may undertake the arduous study of the great religious music of the oratorio, the right interpretation of which demands a noble style and a perfect technique; or, most difficult of all, he may elect to meet the Italians on their own ground, and, braving fashionable prejudice and theatrical intrigue, claim a position in Italian opera. Our own American singers, distinguished as they for intelligence and courage, have most of them followed the latter path. Mr. W. H. Cummings and his other companions have confined themselves to the two first; but Mr. Santley has taken and maintained an eminent position in all three.

His most striking performances here so far have been the grand air for the monster Polyphemus, from Handel’s ‘Acis and Galatea,’ ‘Oh, ruddier than the cherry,’ and Arditi’s famous song, ‘The Stirrup Cup.’ The former is an instance of the wondrous alchemy of art, whereby Handel, by means of florid, rolling [roiling?] passages of great technical difficulty, sets before us the rough, barbarous fury of the sylvan ogre; the latter affords an admirable example of the skill, or feeling, or both, with which Mr. Santley calls up a touch of pathos in the midst of the stir and the impetus of departure.

We lack space at present to do full justice to the quartet which accompanies Mr. Santley, and whom we have found fully worthy of the excellent reputation they enjoy. Of their singing as a quartet we can only say—and shall thus be most quickly conceived and, we trust, agreed with by that portion of the musical public which best understands the matter— that it equaled in every instance the very best which our own glee and madrigal singers occasionally achieved. When two things are each absolutely perfect, there is no further comparison to be made between them. The voices, however, of Mme. Patey and Mr. Cummings are both exceptionally fine. The programmes of these concerts have been tolerably well chosen, and some of the quaintest of the ballads have met with a deserved appreciation. We must, however, observe that it is possible to hear too much of Balfe, especially in encore songs, and although it would be absurd to compare English music with German, there exists enough of the former of a really sterling description to render it possible to make up the programmes of a dozen or so of concerts without resorting to mere inanities.”

“The painful excitement of last week had a depressing effect upon many of our places of amusement and although the best entertainments were [illegible] attended, the gloom of the Chicago disaster seemed to diffuse itself over theater and concert room, to [illegible] the spirits of the artists, and check the enthusiasm of spectators. It was hard to be merry while a [illegible] was in ashes, and a hundred thousand people [illegible] and especially while a doubt prevailed of the [illegible] hundreds of who had relatives and [illegible] among us. It was principally, we must suppose a consequence of the national [illegible] that the Dolby troupe whose first concerts at Steinway Hall were [illegible] days ago, made less of a popular sensation than [ordinarily?] expected. If the comments of the critics, however, have been unduly scanty, there has been no coldness in the [illegible]. Almost everything has been encored and the pieces have been received with absolutely wild [illegible]. The class of music to which the four programmes [illegible] week were devoted is not very well known in [illegible], at least to the present generation of [illegible]—it certainly is not a novelty. There were the Bishop and Moore which used to be the favorites a quarter of a century ago, the old tradition [illegible] Scotland, and the charming glees and quartets of English composers have been such notable [illegible] ever since the days of Queen Elizabeth. Many [illegible] just remember when our mothers used to [illegible] parlor with a performance of ‘I Know a [illegible] Angel’s Whisper,’ and when the correct thing [illegible] gentleman amateur was to sing ‘Draw the [illegible]’ and ‘The Bay of Biscay.’ The warm [illegible] given last week to these relics of a past era [illegible] less in a great measure a tribute to the pleasant sensations they must have awakened, but, after all old- fashioned music was not to be despised, and it [illegible] suffer from comparison with the more modern [illegible] Hatton, Hullah, Balfe, Wallace, and Benedict appeared beside it on Mr. Dolby’s bills. Of the [illegible] merits of all but one of the artists who revived these half-forgotten melodies, we have, perhaps, as much as there is any need for. Mr. Santley excepted, the new-comers please rather by the [illegible] of their expression and the charming [flavor?] of English ballad style, which our own singers rarely understand, than by any preeminent natural gifts or exceptional vocal training. They are good singers, but of course not great. Miss Wynne is pleasant, Mme. Patey impressive, Mr. Cummings graceful, and animated, and Mr. Patey efficient and tasteful [illegible] quartet-basso. It is in the glees and other [illegible] that we like them best. Until the first of the [illegible] societies sprang into light, two years ago [illegible] but little of this class of music. Now we have the exquisite little creations of Wilbye, Weelkes, and Ford so perfectly [illegible] our taste has become fastidious, and we have [illegible] criticize [illegible] singing pretty closely. We doubt, [illegible] whether anything could be better than Bishop’s ‘[illegible] Gentle Lady’ with which Mr. Dolby’s company [illegible] their second concert, or the ‘Blow, Gentle [illegible] the same composer, which they gave on Monday [illegible] were three or four such pieces on each of [illegible] programmes, and all that we had the good fortune [illegible] were given with grace, refinement, simplicity, and excellent intonation. None of them, to be sure are of the highest order of glee music. The fine [illegible] old madrigalists has not been caught by their imitators; but Sir Henry Bishop has successful [illegible] their style, though he has missed the subtler [illegible] their poetry.

Of Mr. Santley we find it difficult to speak [illegible] the appearance of unreasonable enthusiasm. His companions are charming singers for an occasional [illegible], but he is one of the great singers of our time, [illegible] in the front rank of living artists, beside Christine Nilsson, Adelina Patti,--and perhaps we [illegible] Wachtel. No male singer who has visited [illegible] within our recollection, Mario excepted, has [illegible] such a perfect combination of the highest [illegible] not only that his voice is so pure, so brilliant, [illegible] so sure, that his culture is so thorough and [illegible] true. He possesses also that earnestness of [illegible] which Nature gives only to a chosen few, and [illegible] artistic instinct which in the best singer [illegible] deeper than mere sentiment and more [illegible] intelligence. He never sacrifices so [illegible] shade of expression for the sake of personal [illegible] and never indulges in a full exhibition of his [illegible] powers when to do so would mar in the slightest [illegible] the music of which he is the conscientious [illegible]. Thus he gives the comfortable assurance of [illegible] reserve force, and with it all he is so manly [illegible] he has sung, perhaps Arditi’s ‘The [illegible]’ given the most popular satisfaction, and [illegible] Ruddier than the Cherry’ has most pleased the [illegible] musician, yet we are inclined to think that [illegible] test of his high culture, and especially of that grace in phrasing, which is never so delicious [illegible] heard from a male voice, is afforded by [illegible] musical poem of ‘The Valley’ sung on Tuesday night.”