SKU: BR.SON-421
ISBN 9790004802663. 9 x 12 inches.
Nearly an entire decade lies between the first mention (1831) and the printing (1840) of the Trio op. 49. Mendelssohn kept trying to set it to paper, but he was probably again making too many demands on this work, his first in the piano trio genre. Yet his efforts were immediately rewarded: It is the master trio of the present, and Mendelssohn the Mozart of the 19th century, proclaimed Robert Schumann, who was also to compose a landmark D minor Trio seven years later. Mendelssohn's second Trio op. 66 was composed with a relatively light hand in 1845. Over and beyond the familiar Trios opp. 49 and 66, the corresponding volume of the Leipziger Mendelssohn-Ausgabe contains sketches and drafts in the same scoring, which were not further developed.
SKU: BR.SON-422
ISBN 9790004802670. 9 x 12 inches.
The music world has long been familiar with Mendelssohn's celebrated, standard-setting Piano Trio in D minor op. 49. No one, however, knew how many stages this masterpiece went through before it was finally published in 1840. According to preliminary sketches that can no longer be reconstructed, the early version of the of the work in its traditional piano-trio scoring was written in spring 1839. It was given its first performance at the Mendelssohn home in Berlin and remained unpublished. The following year, Mendelssohn brought out a version of the work with flute instead of violin at the request of an English publisher. He had already strongly reworked the original version for the publication. Another revision was made of the flute version, which not only took into account the different technical possibilities of a wind instrument, but also affected the compositional substance of the work. Thus Mendelssohn very nearly did write his D minor Piano Trio three times!
SKU: BR.SON-423
ISBN 9790004802656. 9 x 12 inches.
It is significant that the highly self-critical Mendelssohn could envision if at all only four-hand piano arrangements of his Concert Overtures nos. 2, 3 and 4. He made it clear to the publisher Breitkopf & Hartel that a two-hand version would find no admirers. Since Mendelssohn made his own arrangements of the Hebrides Overture (op. 26) and the Overture zur schoenen Melusine (op. 32), this gives the Leipzig Mendelssohn Complete Edition the opportunity to bring out a slender supplementary volume to the orchestral scores of the four Concert Overtures (LMA I/8).
SKU: BR.SON-443
ISBN 9790004803516. 10 x 12.5 inches.
Mendelssohn 's ConfessionThe Reformation Symphony, misleadingly numbered posthumously as 5 by its publishers, was Mendelssohn's first confrontation with the large symphonic form in Beethoven's wake. Linking it conceptually with the 300th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession in 1830 seems to have first occurred late in the progress of its composition, yet the premiere did not take place until 1832 and ultimately even enabled the composer to distance himself completely from his work and its concept. Thanks to access to a new source [or, ... new access to sources... or ...new access to a source...?], this edition can now finally refute the legend that a separate original or early version of the symphony once existed.
SKU: BR.SON-424
ISBN 9790004802595. 10 x 12.5 inches.
Mendelssohn 's first completed work for a large scoring, the Singspiel Soldatenliebschaft, is also the first of his stage works. The successful performance of the lovely operetta (thus the composer to his librettist) on 11 December 1820 to celebrate his fathers birthday astonished the family and convinced them for good that the 11-year-old was predetermined for a career in music. The overture and 14 vocal numbers gave the young composer ample opportunity to prove his talent. Although the Soldatenliebschaft is occasionally mentioned in the correspondence of the Mendelssohn family, and the music was not completely unknown in Weimar as well, the work was neither published nor performed in public during the composers lifetime. Now that the score has been released in the Complete Edition, the publisher was preparing the performance material as well, so that the work can be made available to theaters.
SKU: BR.SON-410
ISBN 9790004802427. 10 x 12.5 inches.
Once again, musicological source studies preparing the publication of the volume in the Leipziger Mendelssohn-Ausgabe have provided a major surprise: the London version of June 1842 has survived in a copy of the score. Only with this score can the composer's (first) revision after the first performance in Leipzig be interpreted lucidly. A new light is thus cast on the often played Scottish Symphony which, incidentally, Mendelssohn never called as such.
SKU: BR.SON-415
ISBN 9790004802601. 10 x 12.5 inches.
Mendelssohn 's Athalia, i.e. the incidental music to Racine's tragedy Athalie, occupies a special place among the composer's incidental works for stage plays. The composer began by setting the original French text (Vol. V/9A) before expanding his concept step by step for the German version. He revised this version several times - and especially the closing chorus - for the first performance in 1845. The work was not published during the composer's lifetime, which means that, in consideration of Mendelssohn's notorious self-criticism, there is no definitive final version. Armin Koch has taken up the editorial challenge and, with his great knowledgeability, cleared up all questions concerning the authentic form of the work.
SKU: BR.SON-426
ISBN 9790004803073. 10 x 12.5 inches.
Elijah - Early Versions document a decade that ranges from the first conceptional ideas of 1837, hence directly after the completion of St. Paul, to the world premiere of Elijah on 26 August 1846. Mendelssohn had already worked out the plan for a libretto with his friend Carl Klingemann in 1837. Shortly thereafter, Klingemann sent a text which the composer then passed on to his friend, the theologian Julius Schubring. Then began a breathtaking logistical marathon in which Mendelssohn, during the final phase, raced to prepare the world premiere in Birmingham from Leipzig, while simultaneously taking the elaboration of the libretto increasingly into his own hands; indeed, he was, as usual, still changing, deleting, and even adding entirely new numbers at the rehearsals - with the result that the performance was ultimately only an essay, a pre-world premiere of the great work which he was later to subject to several more revisions.Awarded the German Music Edition Prize 2023.
SKU: BR.SON-428
ISBN 9790004802878. 9 x 12 inches.
Mendelssohn wrote his piano-vocal score to Elijah in view of a parallel publication in England and Germany and he did so right after the world premiere, at a time when he was planning to subject the work to a thorough revision. The piano reduction, which actually did appear simultaneously in both countries in 1847, is thus of exceptional value as a source and reflects the revision process of the entire work. Moreover, the volume from the Complete Edition also contains two further piano arrangements from the masters hand: the Elijah Overture for piano four-hands and the well-known aria Hoere, Israel. Mendelssohn had penned the latter piece separately for soprano and piano, possibly as a gift for Jenny Lind or another singer whom he held in high esteem.Awarded the German Music Edition Prize 2023.
SKU: BR.SON-454
ISBN 9790004803646. 9 x 12 inches.
The Violin Concerto in E minor, op. 64, and the Sonata in F minor, op. 4, are the only works for solo violin that Mendelssohn had had printed during his lifetime. However, his complete oeuvre includes other completed or fragmentary compositions, including two further concertos and several unfinished sonatas and other individual pieces. He himself had an extraordinary command of the violin and entrusted the instrument in several other works, such as the Octet op. 20 or the concert aria Infelice! - Ah, ritorno, eta dell'oro, with special tasks. Nevertheless, with regard to details of playing technique, he usually sought advice from solo violinist friends, first from Eduard Ritz, then, after Ritz's early death, from Ferdinand David. The present volume contains all of the completed and fragmentary compositions for violin and piano that have survived - from the early Prelude and Fugue in D and G minor from Zelter's practice book (1820), which can be assigned without doubt, through to the Sonata in F major (1838) in their various versions.
SKU: BR.SON-401
ISBN 9790004802205. 10 x 12.5 inches.
Mendelssohn composed the Piano Concerto in A minor at the age of 12. Though it clearly betrays the influence of classical models (Hummel, Dussek, etc.), it attains an individuality, especially in the central movement, which anticipates the expressive world of Romanticism.
SKU: BT.DHP-0970804-070
German.
Zwei Andante, ein Presto und ein Allegro con anima wählte Wil van der Beek aus dem Werk von Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy und bearbeitete die Stücke für Klarinettenquartett.
SKU: BR.SON-430
ISBN 9790004802861. 10 x 12.5 inches.
Though Mendelssohn planned to revise his Italian Symphony, he came to a halt after three quarters of the piece following the successful London world premiere in 1833. The following year, he newly composed only movements 2 to 4, but there was no further performance of the work, let alone a publication. The London version was thus printed posthumously in 1851 and paved the way for the works international breakthrough. It is thus perfectly plausible to continue to consider this early version of 1833 as the valid form of the work, since it alone can claim to have been entirely conceived, conducted and thus introduced to the public by the composer.
SKU: CA.4037310
ISBN 9790007105372. Language: all languages. Illustrator: James Warren Childe.
Watercolour (1839).
SKU: CA.4037320
ISBN 9790007105389. Language: all languages. Illustrator: Theodor Hildebrandt.
Oil on canvas (Hildebrandt, 1847), Leipzig.
