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Mr. John S. Dwight, editor of the Boston Journal of Music, writes to that paper a letter dated
London, July 22d, on musical matters there, giving an account of a sort of semi-private concert for the benefit of the Society of Female Artists.
Several hundred distinguished ladies and gentlemen were present, and amongst the artists who participated in the musical performances were
Jenny Lind and
Patti.
Of the concert
Mr. Dwight thus speaks:
‘
It was in fact ‘"
Jenny Lind's concert."’ The great songstress has chosen this occasion to make renewal trial of her powers before a public for the first time after a long seclusion; and the result was so satisfactory as to inspire a general wish, amounting almost to a hope, that she may yet resume her throne as
Queen of Song; for surely there is no one who could dispute it with her; no one who could radiate or rather vibrate a purer and more quickening influence from that tuneful eminence.
Ten years, of course, with their domestic duties, have not left the outward person wholly unchanged; but the same soul, ever young, lit up the face in song; as she sang on she became the muse, as formerly.
When she began, I thought the voice had grown a little worn and hard, (it always had to struggle for a moment through a slight veil; but its intrinsic richness and all-conquering bounty made it the more interesting on that account.) And so now all doubt of that sort vanished as she went on, and that pensive, moralizing strain of
Handel sank most deeply and most musically into the listening sense and soul.
In the
Mozart Rondo all the old brilliancy and triumph of execution, voice vying with instrument, and adding the grace of soul to every passage, was completely felt.
And there was the same warmth and tenderers, the same lyric fervor and chaste pathos in the
Belling Duet and the Trick from Robert.
I heard but one remark on all sides — and the critics echoed it the next day, even the sceptical ones of old — to wit: that the great singer never seemed in better, fresher voice, never in fuller possession of her powers, and that she never sang better in her life.
’
