The ?Petite Messe Solennelle? is the finest work of Rossini?s late years. He composed it between 1863 and 1864 at the age of 71 as a commission for Countess Louise Pillet-Will for the consecration of her private chapel where the work received its first performance in March 1864. Together with the ?Stabat mater? the mass is one of the composer?s most important sacred works.The unusual instrumentation with two Pianos and Harmonium is entirely in keeping with the Neapolitan Keyboard tradition of the 18th century which was cultivated in France in Rossini?s day. It forms a distinct contrast to the style of large-scale sacred compositionsas written by for example Liszt and Bruckner. Rossini explained that he wrote the later Orchestral version of the work dating from 1867 out of concern that if he did not do this other composers might orchestrate the mass too heavily in later arrangements.The Piano reduction by Andreas Köhs is extremely idiomatic and largely preserves the charming character of the unusual instrumentation.- Based on the Urtext of the series ?Works of Gioachino Rossini?.- Foreword in two languages (Eng/Ger).- With a separate Harmonium part and one part for Pianos I and II.

Romantische Opera in three acts-Alfonso und Estrella D 732Romatic Opera in 3 ActsIn late September or early October 1821 Schubert and his close friend Franz von Schober vacationed in the countryside of Lower Austria. Their first stopover was at Ochsenburg Castle which belonged to the Bishop of St. Pölten (a close relative of Schober?s) after which they moved on to St. Pölten itself. Roughly a year earlier two stage works by Schubert had been performed in Vienna: the one-act singspiel Die Zwillingsbrüder and the melodrama Die Zauberharfe. The librettos were both written by the seasoned Viennese playwright Georg von Hofmann who blamed the press for the indifferent reception the two works weregiven by the audience. Schubert and Schober now decided it would seem to write a grand romantic opera uninfluenced by the workaday world of the theatre and beholden solely to their own ideas of what an opera should be.Not until 24 June 1854 was the opera finally performed in Weimar under the baton of Franz Liszt. It only achieved success however in an arrangement by Johann Nepomuk Fuchs that was staged on many German and Austrian stages in 1881 2 allegedly with 'brilliant acclaim'.Urtext of the New Schubert EditionFull score (BA5540) and vocal score (BA5540-90) available for salePerformance material (BA5540-72) available for hire