• Seminary Institute for the Blind: participating institution

Prager Zeitung 18/7/1862 reported in the daily news section of Prager und Provinzial-Nachrichten dated 17 July that ‘Next Thursday will take place the public examinations for pupils of the Hradschin [Hradčany] Institute for the Blind. This will not only involve literary topics but all include music and singing. Amongst other things the blind students will sing the Old-Czech chorale „Hospodine pomiluj ny“ with organ accompaniment. No further details of this event were published by this issue of the newspaper. An unsigned review of the event was published by Prager Zeitung 27/7/1862. The critic related ‘On 24 July took place the public examinations for the pupils of the Hradschin [Hradčany] Blind Institute presided over by the Reverend Canon and Senior Sorger, in the presence of the Mayor Mr Pstross, of the Canon Hron and other sacred and secular notables before a very refined public. The children [pupils of the Institute] gave excellent answers to questions on religion and displayed an astonishing knowledge of history, geography and law, as we would have expected from distinguished pupils of public educational institutes. Of the musical demonstrations, truly deserving of excellent mention was Karl Steffel who performed the brilliant, virtuoso-conceived composition for pianoforte Le Zephír by Kittl. Alois Hess and Hyppolit Heřmanek, one on the clarinet and one on the piano, gained vigorous applause.’ The critic then went on to note how the singing was all in four parts and that in intonation and performance it testified to the musical knowledge and accomplishment of the students, especially so given they had to overcome the difficulty of their blindness. Present in the audience at these examinations were noted to have been a large number of women, with admiration for the accomplishments of the students being universal among all who were present. The review ended by noting how the Institute, the origins of which were noted to go back to 1807, had for the last forty years been under the patronage of Count von Ottenkron.

A review of these examinations, describing their complete content, was published by Národní listy 27/7/1862. This included a brief outline of the works that were performed.

The programme given in the event record comprises details of works performed taken from both the Národní listy and Prager Zeitung reviews. The note that all of the singing was given in four parts was perhaps inaccurate given the programming of Tomášek’s 3-part setting of Meerestille und glückliche Fahrt.