• SCHUMANN, Clara: soloist, pf

News of Clara Schumann’s intention to give a concert in Prague was related several months earlier by Prager Morgenpost 23/10/1858. The newspaper announced that Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim were to play in concerts in Prague during the next season. Joachim did not however appear in the city during the 1859 season. Prager Morgenpost 12/11/1858 noted that Clara Schumann had previously visited Prague on 10/11/1858.

Schumann gave two concerts in the Konvikt Hall, the first on 23/3/1859 and the second one five days later. Detailed news of her appearance was rife in the Prague newspapers in the days leading up to the events. Information about the programme of the first concert , for example, was published in Prager Morgenpost 21/03/1859 and in Bohemia a day later. A complete programme for the event was then announced in prominent advertisements appearing in Prager Morgenpost and in Bohemia 23/3/1859. The latter also naturally included the concert in its Tageskalender, for that day. Admission prices were noted in the two large advertisements as costing 3fl for the circle, 1fl 50kr for the hall [i.e. the stalls] and 70kr for the gallery. Tickets could be purchased from the music seller and publisher Robert Veit from the shop ‘zum Beethoven’ in Neue Allee [Nové alej] nr.116.

Interestingly, the concerts by Clara Schumann did not receive as substantial coverage in the Czech periodical Dalibor as they were given in the main German newspapers. Although details of the programme were outlined in both the pre-concert report appearing in Dalibor 20/3/1859 and in the subsequent review text published by Dalibor 1/4/1859, neither source identified the German songs contained in the programme of the first event. The latter, a single paragraph covering both of Schumann’s concerts, related only that in the first event the vocalist Miss Louisa Bergauerová performed songs by Mendelssohn and Schumann. No specific titles were mentioned.