In spite of the most enthusiastic reception at the work's premiere, the famous pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow criticized Verdi's Messa da Requiem as 'an opera in ecclesiastical robes?. Nonetheless, or maybe precisely for this quality, the work has conquered concert podiums worldwide.For this scholarly-critical edition, the editor has consulted no less than 16 sources, many more than were ever used for any other edition of the Requiem - some of these sources were never evaluated before and one source, a hand-written vocal score, particularly relevant to the evaluation of the 'Liber scriptus?, was newly discovered.As such, this edition offers new philological and editorial decisions regarding phrasing, articulation and dynamics and succeeds in presenting practical suggestions to solve musical problems and those concerning the interpretation of this famous work.This edition comprises a concise Critical Commentary in the score. The most important editions published in the 19th century are compared with regard to musicological questions in the work. The genesis of some misunderstandings included in the 1913 and 1964 Ricordi editions is traced. The first version of the 'Liber scriptus? for chorus is included in the appendix while the later version for mezzosoprano solo is to be found in the main part of the edition.- Verdi's monumental work in a Bärenreiter Urtext edition- Trilingual preface (Ital/Eng/Ger)- Critical Commentary (Eng) in the score- Idiomatic well-presented piano reduction / Violon I

Edited by David Rosen-The Works of Giuseppe Verdi is the first critical edition of the composer’s oeuvre. Together with his operas the series presents his songs his choral music and sacred pieces and his string quartet and other instrumental works. This edition of Messa da Requiem is based on Verdi’s autograph score and other original sources. The appendices include two pieces from the compositional history of the Requiem: an early version of the Libera me composed in 1869 as part of a collaborative work planned as a memorial to Rossini and the Liber scriptus which in the original score of the Manzoni memorial Requiem was composed as a fugue for chorus. The introduction to the score tracesthe complex compositional and performance histories of the Requiem and discusses the work’s problems of instrumentation and notation while the critical commentary gives a full description of the sources and an account of all editorial decisions.