HEREFORD, SEPT. 9.

In the most satisfactory number of Sir Arthur Sullivan’s Te Deum, with which the morning concert concluded, Mme. Albani again distinguished herself, delivering the passage, “To Thee cherubin and seraphin,” with fervent expression.

This work – which, it will be remembered, was written for a performance given at the Crystal Palace in 1872 in honour of the recovery of the Prince of Wales – contains several sections that are not worthy of the composer and the occasion for which it was intended, and it may be held to afford an excuse, though not, perhaps, a very valid one, for the extremely secular character of some of its numbers, notably the curiously inappropriate “We therefore pray Thee” and the military march at the close, with which is combined the hymn tune, “St. Anne.”

The conductor, or whoever may have been responsible, was perfectly justified in altering the incredibly unskilful accentuation of the word “honourable,” which, however, is only one among many instances of a carelessness that almost must have proceeded from haste.

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