• Estates Theatre orchestra: participating orchestra

Advance news of this benefit event appeared in the Tagesanzeiger text of Bohemia 8/9/1850, which noted that on Sunday 8th September: ‘Evening in the Theatre: Academy for the benefit of the newly-organized Poor Institute.’ No prior news of this event was published by the newspaper, with the Tagesanzeiger text of the previous issue reporting that on the evening of 8th there would be performed at the [Estates] Theatre ‘Der Blitz’, most probably a play.

The first substantive report of this event was published by Bohemia after the performance, appearing in the issue of 10/9/1850. This review, signed ‘V.’, was contained within the regular section of the newspaper dedicated to Theatre performances. The event was not part of the regular subscription series of theatre productions, being noted as ‘Abonnement suspendu’. Four of the compositions performed were then listed, ‘Spohr (Jessonda Overture), Mendelssohn (Paulus, aria), Aless. Stradella (Piêta), Beethoven (Symphony, C minor)’. Containing such works the occasion was considered by the critic to be akin to a ‘Concert Spirituel’. Previous concerts by that title had been first instigated in Prague during the beginning of 1850 and comprised programmes of substantial works given by the chorus and orchestra of the Estates Theatre. This epithet was applied in the context of the performance being ‘mostly excellent’, and in setting the event against the usually ‘musically sterile summer season’ of typical evening entertainments that were current in the theatre at this time.

The review then described certain aspects of the performances of particular compositions in the programme. Mr Versing’s ‘worthy, expressive performance’ of a ‘magnificent’ aria from Mendelssohn’s oratorio Paulus was more ‘serious and intense than merely theatrical’. The presence of Mrs Knopp-Fehringer in the concert was described as a ‘singular and indeed felicitous accident as a result of the present unparalleled anarchic paucity of repertoire in our Theatre.’ Evidently the singer was waiting for her debut on the stage during the point of the season when the day-to-day repertoire of the venue was concentrated mainly on productions of farces and operetta, offering little to a leading singer. In the light of her performance in this concert she was judged by the correspondent ‘despite her diminutive size to be an artist of the first rank.’ Although she was noted to have already sung the wonderfully inspired aria by the ‘old Italian composer’ Stradella during the previous winter season, ‘her admirable performance was so propitious’ that it was said to constitute a considerable contrast from that which the Theate audience was accustomed. From this the critic expressed concern, albeit without being specific in identification, about the overall standards of other singers in the Prague opera.

The review then reported that the chorus Böhmen mein Vaterland, already well-known from other concerts, was performed by ‘at least 17’ singers of the Estates Theatre. Following this, the orchestra ‘surprised us with the Fifth Symphony of the greatest musical epic[-writer] of all time. From the first bar, with “fate knocking at the door” to the infinite festive- and triumph-song of the combined instrumental masses in the finale’, this ‘wonderfully organic ... highly poetic’ work of ‘the profound thinker, the great poet and musician’, was portrayed as representative of the composer’s expression of human struggle and personal travail. Its performance was ‘very successful’, excelling in the combined scherzo and ‘remarkable’ finale, when the orchestra seemed to be playing as though ‘of one individual’. The strings in particular were praised for their ‘energy, unanimity and quality of tone’.

Of the remaining numbers of the concert, the critic noted that the ‘two concert-pieces for oboe and for violin [were] hardly even a little exotic’ in comparison with the other ‘serious’ and high-art works in the programme. However, their performance facilitated a useful appraisal of their two soloists. Mr Stolz, the oboist, was deemed to be a member of the orchestra who was ‘very worthy of attention’. The violinist, Mr Kökert [Köckert], in performing Vieuxtemps’s Caprice demonstrated the progress he had made in striving for the goal of virtuosity, and ‘delighted with his brilliant performance.’ Finally, the review reported that the theatre was not very full, suggesting that a public that was fed only a constant stream of trivial opera performances was seemingly frightened of the day’s concert programme.

The works are listed in the programme record in order of their coverage by the Bohemia 10/9/1850 review. The position of the two instrumental concertante works cannot be ascertained; Beethoven’s symphony would certainly have been performed last. The chorus by Tomášek was undoubtedly his An mein theures Vaterland. The vocal item sung by Mrs Knopp-Fehringer was actually by Niedermeyer but attributed incorrectly to Stradella for much of the nineteenth century.