Fenton John Anthony Hort
Published: 2013-09
Total Pages: 156
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1896 edition. Excerpt: ... Tuesday I went to London, and to a concert of the Musical Union at Willis' Rooms, which was a treat indeed. The performers were a M. Hiller, pianoforte; Vieuxtemps and Goffrie, violins; Blagrove, viola; and Piatti, violoncello. We had first an exquisite stringed quartet of Haydn's, full of sportive fairy music; but then came such a trio of Beethoven's (piano, violin, and violoncello). At the third or fourth bar one was shivering through and through, yet that was nothing to what came soon after. The second movement did indeed lift one up, I don't know where. There were the vast disadvantages of being alone without a soul that I knew in the room, of the room itself being much too large for so small a body of sound so subtly modulated, of my being rather far off, and of my unfamiliarity with the music; but still there was a taste of heaven about it, and one thought that after all, in moderation, the angels with their harps may not be such a bore as they sometimes appear, --at least, if they play Beethoven. Our third piece was a very fine quartet of Mendelssohn's, which it was hard to do justice to after its predecessor. Next morning I got to early service (eight) at Lincoln's Inn, waited for Maurice, and went to breakfast with him. He was in excellent spirits, and I had a very delightful talk on many subjects, which I prolonged by walking with him to Somerset House. ... At last we got to dinner (the 'Apostles'), but it was rather a dull affair, our numbers being small, and our best members wanting. Maurice had to preach at the opening of the church of some High Church friend; Thompson was at Ely, being made a canon of (i.e. being 'bored, ' as somebody explained it); Stephen was ill; Monckton Milnes was at the Queen's state ball; and Trench,