English Glee Concert: 2nd

Brief.

“The second of a subscription series of three to take place forthnightly.”

“This evening, at Lyric Hall, the second concert of English glees will take place. Besides a variety of glees and part-songs from Hatton, Ford, Smart, Morley, Goldbeck, Bishop, Pinauti and others, a verity of interesting solos will be sung—among them two from Handel’s almost unknown opera of ‘Semele.’”

“A little knot of musicians keep alive for us this winter the traditions of English glee music. But three concerts are announced, and the second of these took place on Thursday at Lyric Hall. No more enjoyable musical evenings than these are anywhere to be had. A discriminating taste always marks the selection of the programmes, and the execution of the glees and madrigals is as nearly faultless as any one can hope for or reasonably expect.

The concerts are given by Miss Beebe and Miss Finch, and by Messrs. Aiken, Bush, Beckett, and Rockwood, all well-known and carefully trained musicians. The selection comprised compositions of Callcott, Smart, Pinsutti, Ford, and Bishop. The glees were relieved by solos, Miss Beebe making a rather mechanical and forced ballad of Bishop’s interesting by the intelligence and discretion with which she gave it, and Miss Finch rendering Alfred Pease’s only meritorious composition—his setting of Tennyson’s ‘Break’—monotonous and colorless by an inanimate manner and somewhat crude phrasing. There are few more effective songs than this when the points that it offers are carefully studied, and the delivery of it is accompanied with the requisite feeling of the sentiment.

The final concert of the series will take place on Thursday evening, the 18th inst.”