• BĚLSKÁ, Louisa: soloist, v

A vigorously nationalistic review of this production was published by Dalibor 20/11/1860, complaining that this beseda, given in honour of the recently deceased Hynek Mácha ‘perhaps satisfied the demands of lovers of Terpsichore, but in no way [satisfied] followers of Mácha.’ Except for a speech about Mácha given by Vítězslav Hálek, the Dalibor correspondent protested that the beseda contained nothing else connected with the writer. The review raised the question of why Truhelka’s choral setting of ‘Čechové jsou národ dobrý [The Czechs are a good nation]’ was not performed, or even a song based upon one of Mácha’s poems. Stigerl’s German song [to a text by Heine, and one of the most popular art songs then circulating in contemporary music circles], although given in a Czech translation, and the unspecified Fantasie for clarinet ‘on God knows what theme’, aroused particula indignation on the part of the reviewer for their irrelevance within the context of a Mácha memorial celebration. However, the report then noted that ‘the wretched choice of these two pieces was of course overshadowed by the excellent performance of K. Strakatý.’ The programme is reproduced in the same order as the Dalibor review.

The folksongs arranged by Veit were not specifically identified by the Dalibor text. The composer arranged six songs, Dar na rozloučenou, Stesk, Bolení hlavy, Ztráta, Výstraha and Šáteček, these being published (Prague, 1860) in the serial collection of vocal works by various native composer, Záboj.