• Cecilia Society: participating institution, vv, orch
• APT, Antonín: director of institute, conductor
• MIKOVÁ-BENNEWITZOVÁ, Emilie: soloist, v
• SCHMIDT-PROCHÁZKOVÁ, Josefa: soloist, v
• EILERS, Albert: soloist, v

This extended programme of works by Bach, including the local première of an extract from the B minor Mass, was unprecedented in Prague and well-testified to the remarkably liberal aesthetic tastes of Antonín Apt, of the participating members of the Cecilia Society and of the concert-going Prague public.

Prager Morgenpost 27/2/1861 published news that ‘The third concert of the Cecilia Society [Cäcilien-Vereins], which takes place on Thursday 28th February at 4.30pm in the Žofín Island Hall, contains the following programme: 1st part: 1. Overture in C major (from the Suite nr.1 for orchestra) by Johann Sebastian Bach. 2. Recitative and Aria from the Passion music after the apostel Matthew by Joh. Sebastian Bach. 3. Sinfonie in D major by Philipp Emanuel Bach. 2nd part: Credo from the high Mass in B minor by Joh. Sebastian Bach. The solo parts have been kindly taken by Miss Mick [Miková], Mrs Procházka [Schmidt-Procházková] and Mr Eilers. Each of the works are being performed here for the first time.’ An extensive review of this concert, signed ‘**’, together with a critique of Bach’s music was published in Prager Morgenpost 2/3/1861. Of the Mass in B minor, the critic considered that this is ‘among the 10 known masses of Seb. Bach the foremost in its artistry, a magnificent work of art, that in some respects is only eclipsed by Beethoven’s gigantic work, the D major Mass’. Confirming that only the Credo was given on this occasion, the source reported that ‘the performance of this huge polyphonic work is a very difficult, and honour [Ehre] is due to the adequate vocal and instrumental body of the Cecilia] Society, as too the not inferior soloists Mrs Schmidt-Prochaska [Schmidt-Procházková], Miss Mick [Miková] and Mr Eilers. Miss Mick [Miková] creditably gave the soprano aria from the Passion music, a very pious composition. In both of the orchestral works the body of strings [performed] very meritoriously, and the fiendishly difficult playing of the high register clarini parts was very commendable. The Symphony in D major by Seb. Em. Bach [C.P.E. Bach] is a strange [merwürdige] composition; it consists of only two independent vigorous movements, so that in form and duration it is like one of the many Haydn sonatas; it is fresh in spirit and effective in the... [imitative deployment] of the string and wind instruments. So the director, Mr Apt, is but again to be given a doff of the hat [einen Wink gegeben - lit. given a nod] after the previous year of [giving works by] Richard Wagner, for extracting and cultivating rich and unknown treasures of music literature, thereby the esteemed man is deserving of our unfading praise. Vociferous applause at the end of the performance rewarded his extraordinary efforts. The concert was plentifully attended.’

A review of this concert, signed ‘!!’, appeared in Prager Zeitung 3/3/1861. The correspondent reported: ‘With the programme of its third concert that took place on Thursday, Mr Apt, the untiring director of the Cäcilien-Verein, has again added a new gossamer leaf to his crown of merit for the promotion of music in Prague. On this occasion he brought to our ears four new pieces (some of them complete, others excerpts from larger works) from the two Bachs whose acquaintance the Prague public would scarcely have made without such efforts; works that are related to the overall musical literature in the manner of cornerstones to an important palace. We make this analogy in particular in regard to the Symphony in D by Philipp Emanuel Bach, known as the ‘Berlin’ or, as others would have it, the ‘Hamburg Bach’ – son of and equal to the great Johann Sebastian, and father of the pianist’s art and of the symphony. It is of particular interest to see the sonata form in the symphony, as a new musical genre, used so successfully. Here one finds the introductory movement, the [following] Adagio and Rondo all to be interrelated. What is admirable, however, is the freshness of theme, which the attrition of time has not robbed of immortality. How witty, with almost humorous undertones, sounds the tonic in the violins at the start of the introduction, [a motif] repeated yet constantly with new rhythms, which are followed in the mediant and submediant in a similarly racy manner while the other strings flutter here and there in amusing figures. In the harmonic sequence a rare dignity makes itself felt through a total simplicity and naturalness; one encounters no transition that could be said to be common or reduced to a matter of mere formality. Though the orchestration exhibits little richness, this only makes all the more remarkable the diversity of colouring that this genius of a composer could envision with such limited resources.

The other three numbers were by Joh. Sebastian Bach. The colossal Credo from his High Mass in B minor created an impression of magisterial greatness. Never was the triumph of sacred belief celebrated with greater power, never with greater veracity. In carrying out this sublime task the composer, keeping to the words of the familiar Symbolum Nicaeanum, comes to give an interpretation in form to the text. Not content with a mere emotional response, he instead places every word on the gold balance, then does so again, in order to illuminate its meaning in music from every side. As a result the Credo is resolved into as many sections as it contains articles. The musical material is mainly apportioned to the four singing voices, while the instruments, almost without exception, simply provide support. Only in the five-part fugue does the double bass supply the fifth voice; a little more independently the oboes are used (in this concert in the bass solo Et in spiritum sanctum in place of the oboes d’amour[)], to provide, if we are not mistaken, the only accompaniment. In the choral passages the accompanying instruments are overwhelmed by the masses [of voices], and only in the grand finale in D major do the clarini make a distinctive contribution with their high notes. As with all his compositions, Joh. Sebastian Bach uses polyphony here; at the very beginning the well-known ritual motif with which the Credo commences appears as the theme of a fugue, which unfolds during the superb exposition and introduces the listener into the midst of the turmoil of the abduction, leaves him in the magical realms of alternating imitation until... the end of the number comes to meet him as his exit. Even in the charming duet of soprano and alto Bach’s use of artistic imitation makes for such difficulty that the singers Miss Mik and Mrs Prochazka-Schmidt [Schmidt-Procházková] were required to exercise the greatest attention in order to cope with the tricky intonation. Because of this the harmonic structure is very clear; the modulation moves through [only] diatonic chords.

  The concert began with the overture in C major (from the Suite No.1 for orchestra), which after a short introduction takes the form of a fugue, and which was follow[ed by] the recitative and aria for soprano from the great St Mathew Passion no.58 part II that is accompanied by only a flute and two oboes and, in one place, by bassoon (the latter presumably a substitute for the deep notes of the oboe di Caccia for which it was scored but which today is completely forgotten). [This piece, on account of the scoring, was undoubtedly nr.49 ‘Aus liebe’.]

  The performance was almost irreproachable throughout and full of energy. The ladies Miss Mik, Mrs Prochazka-Schmidt, together with Mr Eilers, contributed deservingly as soloists.’

Two notices of this event were published by Dalibor 1/3/1861. The first of these was a brief note, evidently intended for a previous issue of the periodical, that the ‘Cecilia Society [Cecilská jednota] will perform in its third concert the second part of the Mass in B minor by Seb. Bach and the Symphony in A major by Em. Bach.’ The second text comprised a brief unsigned review relating that ‘Yesterday took place the third concert of the Cecilia Society, in which we heard for the first time [an] Overture in C major by J. Šeb. [Seb.] Bach; recitative and aria from Passion music by him, then [a] symphony in D major by Filip. Em Bach, and finally „Credo“ from a great Mass in B minor by Šeb. Bach. All these masterly and in [musical] style precise compositions were performed accurately under the circumspect handling of Mr Apt, and obtained a very favourable reception.’