No. 2 presents us with six variations on one of the many common airs in an opera which good singing and some good acting have kept for a time on our denaturalized national stage. About half of these, the last, alla Polacca, especially, really take a form somewhat new,—a fact which argues favourably of the composer’s talent; for the writer of variations, above all others, must have learnt by experience how very little novelty there is under the sun. Altogether this publication has afforded us pleasure.
- Hommage à Handel, DIVERTIMENTO on the air, The Harmonious Blacksmith, composed by PIO CIANCHETTINI. Op. 27. (Chappell.)
- THE GIPSIES’ MARCH, being No. 4 of Recreations for the Piano-Forte, arranged by E. C. VERNET. (Cramer and Co.)
TO his Divertimento Mr. Cianchettini has prefixed a prelude, consisting of nothing but arpeggios in demisemiquavers, to the almost incredible extent of seven pages! We have been present when pianists have begun to indulge themselves in such long-winded extemporaneous effusions, but never had self-devotion enough to wait the conclusion; and we shrewdly suspect that if any one shall have the courage to play through the black forest of notes which has grown up under Mr. C.’s hand, the auditors, however numerous at the beginning, will glide away, till the performer is ‘left alone with his glory.’ After the prelude comes (mercy on us!) an Introduzione, in which the subject is, à la mode, anticipated. Then we at length arrive at Handel’s air; but how altered! how wo-begone!—transposed into B flat, and treated as a theme for modern descant! Had Handel added no variations to it himself, this would have been allowable; but as he has written many, and most fitting and beautiful ones, it was really a bold thing to render homage to the great composer in language which, however well meant, his spirit must view in the light of a very gauche compliment.
We know not the arranger, as he modestly terms himself, of No. 2, but whoever or wherever he may be, we feel indebted to him for a pleasant divertimento, formed on the original and beautiful march of Weber; the latter very advantageously adapted, and well set off, by what Mr. Vernet has added. The Introduction to this, à la militaire, is spirited and brilliant, and the whole is showy, without being difficult.
SELECT AIRS from AUBER’s Ballet-Opera, La Bayadère, or, The Maid of Cashmere, arranged with a Flute accompaniment, ad lib., by J. F. BURROWES. Books 1 and 2. (Chappell.)
These books contain nearly the whole of the opera, but not the overture, arranged in Mr. Burrowes’s matter-of-fact manner. We have always approved his plan, because he places within reach of most players what many would so adapt as to become useful to only a comparative few. He has given ten pieces, but as we know nothing of the score of La Bayadère, we are enabled merely to say, that he appears to have embodied all the essential parts of the accompaniments in his arrangement, so far as a pair of hands can take them in with that ease which is a main object with publishers who calculate on a large sale.
Of the opera we have had occasion to speak before; it is, intentionally we suppose, the lightest that the modern theatre ever produced, and prettiness is the only quality to which it can make any pretence. In fact La Bayadère is of mongrel breed, half ballet, half opera; the music, therefore, is fitted to it accordingly. The overture to this will be found noticed in our next article.