The “Grand Festival” in celebration of the recovery of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales is announced for Wednesday afternoon. Music will be largely represented. The concert is to be given in the Handel Orchestra, and the London contingent of the Handel Festival Choir, joined to the choir of the Crystal Palace, with an orchestra to match – altogether above 2,000 singers and players – will aid in the performance.

The programme is divided into two parts, the first (after the National Anthem) being devoted exclusively to a “Te Deum laudamus,” by Mr. Arthur Sullivan, of which Her Majesty the Queen has graciously accepted the dedication, composed at the instigation of the directors of the Crystal Palace, expressly for the occasion.

The second part consists of the miscellaneous selection, choral, solo-vocal, and instrumental, for which the services of Madlle. Titiens, Signors Faucelli and Foli are secured – the whole ending with Mr. Brinley Richards’s hymn, “God bless the Prince of Wales,” the solo part assigned to Mdlle. Titiens. The choral portions of Mr. Sullivan’s “Te Deum” were rehearsed, for the second time, at Exeter-hall, on Saturday evening, when a marked effect was produced by more than one number – especially the “Holy, holy,” and the final chorus, in which the composer has appropriately interpolated a “Domino salvam fac Reginum,” with full chorus, full orchestra, military band, organ, &c.

Page modified 31 December 2009