Not long after my arrival in Manchester I had occasion to hear one of the concerts of the oldest and most important musical society of the town, called ' The Gentlemen's Concerts,'...At the concert which I attended, Grisi, Mario, and Lablache sang ; but the orchestra! Oh, the orchestra! I was fresh from the 'Concerts du Conservatoire,' from Hector Berlioz's orchestra, and I seriously thought of packing up and leaving Manchester, so that I might not have to endure a second of these wretched performances. But when I hinted at this my friends gave me to understand that I was expected to change all this to accomplish a revolution, in fact, and begged me to have a little patience. << less