... THE IIECKMANN QUARTETT. This excellent body of elianibcr-niusic players ga\e tliird- and, for tlie present, tlieir last concert at Princes Hall last week, tlieir programme including No. 1, Quartett, No. 6, in C Mozart _ No. 2, Quartett in A minor, Op. 41 'aU,!,! No. 3, Quartett in 0 sharp minor, Op. 131 Beetho, This interesting programme was marvellously well executed, to tlie gratification of ...

... TIIE STROLLING PLAYERS. THE smoking concert of the Strolling Players' Orchestral Society, given last Saturday at Princes Hall, attracted a large gathering of aristocratic amateurs, and was patronised by T.R.H. Prince Henry of Battenberg, the Duke of Cambridge, and the Duke of Teck, the Duke of Abercorn, the Earl of Lathom, &c. The orchestra played with complete success the instrumental ...

... . On Saturday lust the late Sir George Macfarren's first and best oratorio, St. John the Baptist, was performed at St. James's Hall by students of the Royal Academy of Music, over which institution the lamented deceased had watched during the last twelve years of his life with a zealous and unremitting devo tion which raised the academy to a higher pitch of prosperity than it had ever before ...

... Here was food for all kinds of musical appetites, and all the dishes were well served. Mr. Henschel's orchestra has greatly improved since the commencement of the season, and did justice to Nos. 1, 3, and 8, and the orchestral accompaniments to Nos. 2, 4, and 5 were well played. Signor Piatti was heard at his best in Nos. 4 and 5, and how good is his best it would be superfluous to say. Nos. ...

... . We arc glad to say that tlie musical public lias awah- the fact that in this combination of eminent and aceoi j artists a comparatively new source of enjoyment is p and that their fifth concert, last week, was well attcnacu. nrooraiiimc was attractive. _ Gcbuucr Quartet conccrtant, Op. 41, for flute, clarinet, horn, an Messrs. Rudeliif, Gomez, Mann, nnd Wotto n. Becker-- Song* Spring time ...

... . Siberia, the American importation which for some unaccount able reason Miss Grace Hawthorne has thought fit to produce at the Princess's, is an indifferent specimen of a kind of drama that is poor at the best. In certain ways it recalls Michael Strogoff: the Courier of the Czar; in others it suggests various works which are panoramic and spectacular rather than dra matic. But whilst its ...

... . ONE is disposed to look kindly upon so brave an experiment as that undertaken at the Vaudeville the other day by a couple of young players who both show intelligence and general promise above the average. It is after all a laudable ambition which causes a desire to handle the great creations of poetic drama, and to see how much or how little has been achieved by patient study and thought. ...

... . The third of these interesting and valuable recitals attracted we audience to the Portman Rooms yesterday week, but v of the sterner sex were present. It is unaccountable that tbPV should neglect the opportunities afforded by Mr. Bonawitz for becoming acquainted with the musical history of the last four centimes, so far as concerns composition for organ, harp- ichord, and pianoforte. Each ...

... . Jliss Helen Cooper-Parr might have done much better than choose for the vehicle of her first appearance before a 1 .ondon audience ^so crude and inartistic a work as Messrs. Lyster and Heriot's Sidonie. This piece sets forth the dis agreeable story of the relations of a French adventuress, Sidonie Le Claire, with Clifford Ormonde, a young gentleman whom she has managed to fascinate by means ...

... . FOR the benefit of Mr. Goodrich, an actor who has un happily nearly lost his eyesight, an original play from his pen was tried last week at the Vaudeville, under the title of The Calthorpe Case. This proved to be a domestic drama of strong albeit somewhat complicated interest: and it might, if it were touched up here and there in construction and slightly fortified in motive, be found fully ...

... nrjR CAPTIOUS CRITIC. CHBISTMAS travelling past and present. WHEN I learned that I was expected to write, in a captiously critical spirit, upon Christmas Travelling Past and Present, I fell into a state of bewilderment, from which, up to the moment of commencing the task in question, I had not re covered. As regards the past I am especially embarrassed. Of course there is no lack of material ...