Those who went to the concert last night were well rewarded, and Mr. Henschel ought certainly to be warmly commended for his excellent programme, though the performance of it at times left much to be desired. The opening number was the Perlude to Wagner's parsifal, of which the first half was well played, the strains of the Parsifal-motif coming out clearly and prominently. Beyond this the spirit of the piece seemed somehow to lose itself, so that the impression of the whole was that the music had gotten the better of the orchestra. The next number, Walther's Preislied, from Wagner's "Mastersingers," was not open to this criticism; the spirit was admirably sustained, with the only fault of the orchestra's playing too loud for the singer, Mr. Toedt.

Beethoven's seventh symphony was the central selection this time, and on the whole was well played. Something appeared to be the trouble diring the first movement which was dreadfully ragged, each man playing independently, so that it was hard to catch the conductor's interpretation. The remaining three numbers were, however, as well played as we have ever heard the orchestra play Beethoven, except that in the third movement the sudden change to the "tempo primo" was not together. On the whole, though the symphony is a favorite one, it contains probably some of Beethoven's most commonplace thoughts. The next selection, Entr'acte, from Reinecke's Manfred, was admirably in the spirit of the whole programme. While thoroughly German in character, of the modern school, it was beautiful and impressive, without being difficult to grasp. The orchestra played it in a masterly manner, attaining a wonderfully soft pianissimo at the close.

Mr. Toedt kept the audience in a trance while he sang three songs (a) Nina, by Pergolesi; (b) The Lark, by Rubinstein; (c) Listz's Du Bist Wie Eine Blume. His art of rendering is of the very best, while the quality of his voice is of the mellow kind in the high notes, his low notes being sometimes almost harsh.