Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/547

 1899.] AET, DEAMA AND MUSIC. 123

connection it may be noted that a new choral singing competition was announced to be held at Leeds in the following year for a York- shire choral challenge shield. Choral singing in London, apart from the performances of the Royal Choral Society, still fell considerably below the standard it might reasonably be expected to reach, and the Philharmonic Society when giving a performance of Beethoven's " Choral Symphony " obtained their choir from Leeds. The Queen's Hall Choral Society, from which great things were expected when Mr. George Riseley of Bristol was specially engaged as conductor, did not seem established on a satisfactory basis. The society, in addition to other good work, gave in December the first performance in England of Edmond Depret's setting of the " Te Deum," under the direction of Mr. James Coward. Some freshness and variety was imparted to the Royal Choral Society's work by Sir Frederick Bridge's experiment in producing the " Messiah " (Jan. 2) on Handelian lines ; by the per- formance for the first time in London on March 9 of Wagner's " Holy Supper of the Apostles " ; and by a performance of Edward Elgar's " Caractacus," originally produced at the Leeds Festival in 1898. For the performance of the " Messiah " the string parts had to be revised, the harpsichord part arranged for the organ, Mozart's additional accom- paniments, with which we have all grown familiar, being omitted.

The Bach Choir, under the direction of Professor Villiers Stanford, repeated some of the fine works familiar to them, and gave their first performance (March 26) of Verdi's " Stabat Mater," originally produced at the Gloucester Festival of 1898 ; also Sir Hubert Parry's " Prome- theus Unbound." Special Choral Concerts deserving mention were Mme. Albani's at the Queen's Hall (Feb. 10), when Professor Villiers Stanford's setting of the " Te Deum," composed for the Leeds Festival, 1898, was sung by the Queen's Hall Choral Society, the orchestra consisting chiefly of past and present students of the Royal College of Music ; the Bristol Choral Society's Concerts at the Queen's Hall, London, under Mr. George Riseley's direction, who gave Brahms' 8 "Requiem" and Mendelssohn's "Hymn of Praise"; the performance of "Elijah," on Handel Festival scale, at the Crystal Palace (June 24), the 16l8t anniversary festival in aid of the funds of the Royal Society of Musicians ; and the special performance of the same work at St. George's Chapel, Windsor (Dec. 9) — her Majesty the Queen being present — for the benefit of the families of the soldiers and sailors engaged in the war in South Africa.

The high standard of orchestral playing reached by the Queen's Hall Band was, under Mr. Henry J. Wood's direction, completely maintained in the Symphony, Wagner, Promenade and Sunday Concerts. The following selection from the long list of novelties produced will give some idea of the enormous amount of work got through : —

At the Symphony Concerts : Edvard Grieg's " Symphonic Dances " (op. 64) (Jan. 28) ; Karl Bendl's " South Slavonic Rhapsody (Feb. 11) ; Emil Sjogren's " Orchestral Episode," descriptive of the desert journey of the three Holy Kings (Feb. 25). The soloists included Miss Leonora JacksoD, who gave a very fine rendering of Brahms's " Violin Concerto." At the fifth season of Promenade Concerts, extending from August