• BERGAUER, Louise: soloist, v

The Tageskalender daily almanac of Prague social and musical events published by Bohemia 16/4/1857 reported: ‘Thursday, 16th April... 5pm Concert of Miss Bergauer in the Konvikt Hall.’ No further details of this event were given by this issue of the newspaper.

A review, signed ‘-h.’, of this concert was published by Tagesbote aus Böhmen 17/4/1857. The correspondent remarked: ‘Miss Louise Bergauer, once very popular as an elegant singer of Lieder amongst the intelligent circles who hold musical education and good taste greater than dazzling display, organized yesterday a Soirée musicale, and the full house as well as the flattering performance of the Concert-giver demonstrated that she remains alive and in favour in the memory of the Prague public. Her programme included tasteful examples of all styles: the old-Classicism [Altclassicismus] represented by the Recitative and Aria „Che farò senza Euridice“ from Orfeo by Gluck in the original alto range; the classic German song by Schubert „Erstarrung“ and Lachner’s „Waldvöglein“; the French Romance through Couplets by Blumenthal; and ending with the patriotically-biased of Skraup „Češka“, of which the last strophe was on general request encored. In all of this heterogeneous material the singer was proficient through her understanding and her comprehensive knowledge of effect; only in the Orfeus aria with its widely accented recitative was the range of the singer not of sufficient proportions, and was made too deep through the transposition from C minor to B-flat minor. Messrs Rozkoschny and Bennewitz deserve the most substantial thanks of music-lovers for choosing the wonderful D-minor Sonata for piano and violin op.121 by Schumann. This remarkable work is one of the happiest moments to flow from this creative artist, one so rich that in his bright periods he could render in sound with as equal veracity the naive life of a child as the most tremendous battle and storm. The truly classical grace of the scherzo and the simple, profound intimacy of the echoing harp-like pizzicatos on the resonant G string must in this Sonata make the composer appealing not simply to an aquired taste, but also as a dear friend to the layman [i.e. the composer’s style is not here an aquired taste for the specialist, but is appealing to the layman]. Thanks are due to the beautiful choice of Messrs Bennewitz and Roskoschny [Rozkošný] for the clear and conscientious performance of this difficult work. Professor Golterman also heightened the pleasant impression of the whole Soirée through the brilliant performance of his Fantasie on Czech folksongs, and took too the obligato ’cello part in the Lachner song.’

The database programme record gives the programme in the same order as the works are described by the Tagesbote aus Böhmen review. This may not constitute the actual order in which the works were performed, which cannot be ascertained from that source. The song by Lachner was originally written for horn obbligato, but was also published with the horn part arranged for violoncello.