• Cecilia Society: participating institution, chorus, orch
• APT, Antonín: director of institute, conductor

The Lokalzeitung of Bohemia 26/1/1851 reported that in the first half of February the Cecilia Society would give a concert ‘for its members [für seine Mitglieder] in which the great music pieces [Musikstücken] Mozart’s D major Symphony and Becker’s Die Zigeuner... have been decided upon for performance.’ No subsequent report was published by Bohemia or Prager Zeitung that the concert was originally determined for the first half of the month, and the description ‘in the first half’ probably indicates no definite date had then been arranged. That the concert was specifically arranged for members of the Cecilia Society – possibly contributing but not necessarily participating members - was not confirmed by later sources, and the note of the Bohemia 23/2/1851 review that the Žofín Hall was full certainly confirms that the concert was a public concert. However, members of the society may have been freely admitted. 

The date, time, venue and complete programme for this Cecilia Society concert was published by Bohemia 16/2/1851. That the D-major symphony performed was Mozart’s K504 is determinable from the specification by this source report that the work was ‘Symphonie in D-dur (ohne Menuett)’. The Tagesanzeiger texts of Bohemia 20/2/1851 and 21/2/1851 specified the date, venue and time of this event.

The Czech periodical Lumír published brief news of this event on 20/2/1851, reporting that ‘On Friday 21st February we will hear in the concert of the Cecilian Society Mozart’s Symphony in D major and „Cikáni“ Rhapsody in 7 songs by J. Becker.’

A review, signed ‘V.’, of this concert was published by Bohemia 23/2/1851. A little less than half of this text focussed upon the work by Becker. Noted to have been the main item of the concert, this attracted scathing criticism from the correspondent. The title of ‘Rhapsody’ was thought to imply a certain ‘freedom of creative style and a contempt for rules of form’, yet instead this was ‘a rather tame, melodically and harmonically not at all exceptional composition.’ Although occasional touches of colourful orchestration were effective, such as obbligato guitar parts utilized effectively with pizzicato strings and sustained horn notes, the composer’s attempts to write with invention and originality constantly failed. Rhythmically, the work was permanently grounded in simple two and three time, with dance rhythms reminiscent of ‘Father Strauß’ yet without the effectiveness. ‘The resulting monotony, not only rhythmically but in modulation too, pervades almost all of the seven songs’, only the fourth, Nächtliche Rast, was deemed to be successfully expressive. The performance itself was praised and the soloist Miss Wáwra [Vávra] received applause for the singing in the fifth song Wiegenlied.

Of the remaining works in the programme, the Bohemia critic considered that the two songs by Müller were unremarkable and typical of their genre. The first, sung by the ‘well-trained and powerful alto Miss Marochetti, received applause despite the bad tuning of the orchestra, which was over half a tone high, and this had a bad effect upon the closing chorus.’ The voice of the baritone Ludwig was praised for its fullness and wonderful timbre; his performance was ‘convincing’ although the singer was observed to have been very nervous, and the second verse of the song was encored. Vogel’s setting of Ein Sonntagsmorgen am Rhein was ‘poetic and effective’ and warranted a further performance. The ‘lyrical and artful’ Symphony by Mozart, performed as the opening item, was given a ‘very honourable performance by the large, mainly dilettante orchestra.’ The strings in particular distinguished themselves though effective playing in the opening Andante but also in the ‘difficult’ Finale. The venue was noted to have been full.

The database programme record is reproduced in order of information published in the Bohemia review and 26/1/1851 report. The review noted the position of the first two numbers in the programme.