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

Virtually identical reports appeared in all of the Prague German-language newspapers on 26/4/1860 noting that this fourth [annual] concert of the Cecilia Society ‘the 100th since it was founded’ was to take place on Saturday 28th at 4.30 in the Žofín Hall. The programme was to comprise a Te Deum by Handel and Beethoven’s C minor Symphony,and participating was to be an orchestra of 42 violins, 14 violas, 10 violoncellos and 10 double basses. The solo vocalists were announced as being Miss Schmidt and Mr Appé.

The venue and time of the concert was listed in the Tageskalender of Bohemia 28/4/1860.

The unsigned Dalibor 1/5/1860 review noted that these two ‘great works’ were being given by the Cecilia Society to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Society’s foundation. Evidently, the occasion was carefully planned and was intended as a celebratory and large-scale event. The review stated that the score of Handel’s Te Deum was ‘ordered’ by Antonín Apt, the director of the Cecilia Society, ‘from an Englishman’, possibly suggesting that Apt sent to England to obtain the music. For the performance of Beethoven’s Symphony, the Cecilia Society assembled an orchestra of unusually large proportions for a Prague concert of this period, comprising 20 first violins, 20 second violins, 12 violas, 10 ’cellos and 10 double basses. In the Te Deum the vocal soloists comprised the oldest member of the Society, Mr August Appé, and the Estates Theatre singer Miss Josefa Schmidtová; the solo brass parts were taken by Dolenský and Ouvalský, both members of the Estates Theatre orchestra. The performances of the two works were described by the Dalibor critic as excellent. The review concluded with the observation that ‘the audience was, in spite of the bad weather, quite numerous.’

Substantial reviews of this concert were published in the German-language newspapers Bohemia, Prager Morgenpost, Prager Zeitung and Der Tagesbote.