PIANO-FORTE.

  1. PREMIERE FANTAISIE ELEGANTE, sur des motifs de l’Opéra Fra Diavolo, composée par C. CZERNY. (Chappell.)
  2. Souvenir de Fra Diavolo, a MELANGE of favourite subjects from that Opera, composed by ADOLPHE ADAM. (Chappell.)

Lo! here we have the Fra Diavolo again! There is nothing like wearing a thing thoroughly out, so getting rid of it speedily, composers seem to think. But is this not as bad as cutting up the bird that produced such valuable eggs? A good opera is a rarity, so is a good song; and no sooner do we obtain either, than we set about the means of surfeiting everybody with it.

M. Czerny has intended well in choosing subjects from Auber’s opera that are not so common as many others, but he has thus selected the least pleasing. Our readers may perhaps call us unreasonable, and say, that we object to the popular airs because they are worn out, and to those less worn because not popular. Our reply is, that M. Czerny was not driven to an alternative, and should have selected neither the one nor the other, but directed his attention elsewhere. He has here produced a very common-place, dull affair—a fantaisie, in which there is no fancy, and a continual drumming on the high notes, till the auditor is quite fatigued with such an unbroken succession of ear-piercing sounds. Whoever invented the additional keys above ought to be declared guilty of a misdemeanour.

M. Adolphe Adam has gone into the other extreme, and chosen subjects that every one knows by heart. These, however, he has managed gracefully, and produced a divertimento at once easy and pleasing.

  1. AIR DE BALLET from AUBER’s Opera, La Bayadère, arranged as a RONDO by HENRY HERZ. No. 1. (Chappell.)
  2. Ditto No. 2.
  3. Ditto No. 3.

La Bayadère is now performing at Drury Lane, under the title of The Maid of Cashmere, where its success depends much more on the dancing than the music. There is a vivacity in the first and second of the above which will procure them attention, though, except that skittish kind of liveliness which marks M. Auber’s latter productions, they possess nothing out of the very common way. The third, however, is more original, and will be effective in almost any form; as a stage piece it is particularly so. M. Herz has arranged these all in a more rational manner than is customary with him, though he is as fond of the additional notes as M. Czerny, and others of the tinkling school.

  1. Inspirations à Pillnitz, TROIS RONDEAUX MIGNONS, composés pendant son séjour à Pillnitz, par C. G. REISSIGER. Op. 58. No. 1. (Wessel and Co.)
  2. Ditto No. 2.
  3. Ditto No. 3.
  4. Der Alpen Sänger, the March as played by the Guards, arranged by S. GÖDBE. (Collard and Collard.)

The very grandiloquent word, ‘inspiration.’ led us to hope that we should find M. Reissiger under the immediate influence and auspices of Phœbus; that we should meet with flights of imagination, efforts of genius, such as can only be expected under favour of a god—or, at least, of a Muse; but on looking at these darling rondos, we soon perceived that neither Apollo nor any of the Nine had taken any trouble in the matter, and that the inspirations boasted of were at the best but mere dreams, brought about by the fumes of mum, or German beer. These, we grant, are pretty, unaffected, easy pieces, prudently short, and will make a little variety in the modern repertory, where, in truth, we find little else than opera airs in every form except a new one.

No. 4 is—what shall we say?—it is Mr. Gödbe’s version of a march now enjoying the full tide of military popularity. Of course, every publisher puts forth his own edition, and the present is a very easy one, with a page of appropriate introduction.