• BENNEWITZ, Antonín: instrumentalist, vl
• BAUŠ, František: instrumentalist, vl
• PAULUS, Alfred: instrumentalist, va
• GOLTERMANN, Julius: instrumentalist, vc

Advance news of the annual series of three quartet soirées was published in Prager Zeitung 30/11/1859, noting that ‘Also in this year’s advent season will Messrs Bennewitz, Bausch, Paulus and Goltermann in the Konvikt Hall arrange three Quartet Soirées.’ The dates of these performances were given as 1/12/1859, 8/12/1859 and 15/12/1859. Similar news appeared in Bohemia 30/11/1859.

This event was noted in the Tageskalender of Bohemia 15/12/1859, which gave the time, venue and title of the production [Quartet-Soirée], and listed too the participants. The complete programme details were listed in Prager Morgenpost 15/12/1859. Reviews of the concert appeared in Bohemia 16/12/1859, in Prager Morgenpost on the same day, and a very brief text was published by Prager Zeitung 17/12/1859.

No specific review of the three quartet entertainments of the 1859-1860 concert season was published by Dalibor. However, on 1/1/1860 the periodical published a brief report, signed ‘-l-’ relating that these annual chamber music productions given in Prague could be traced back to the early years of the century when they were instigated by Pixis. The genre of chamber music was deemed to be very illustrative of a individual composer’s skill and art, and the works given in this series were seen as representative of the gradual evolution of the quartet from Haydn to the most modern works, the latter manifest in the String Quartet in D minor [the German sources identify this work as in C minor] by the Czech composer Frömter played in the second concert. The correspondent praised the performances in general for their masterly contrast of nuance, and in particular the violin playing of Benevic [Bennewitz] which it was noted had gained ‘beautiful tone, fresh and supple’ following his recent travels to France and Belgium.