Minor Alterations

SKU: CA.3500812

ISBN 9790007213008. Text language: Latin.

Johann Sebastian Bach was able to appreciate good works by other composers, as is shown by contemporary accounts, and by a glimpse into what remains of his music library. Francesco Durante, maestro di cappella in Naples, was known in his time as an accomplished composer, who in his sacred works sought to achieve accommodation between the strict stile antico and the stile moderno of concert music at that time. This combination distinguishes his Mass in C minor, and it may have been what awakened Johann Sebastian Bach's interest in this work. He copied it about 1730, not merely for study purposes but in order to perform it, as is indicated by various alterations which he made to the composition. Bach replaced the Christe by a composition of his own, and for the Kyrie II he used Durante's music for the Gloria, making the alterations required by the different words. A worthwhile discovery! Score and part available separately - see item CA.3500800.

SKU: CA.3500800

ISBN 9790007143091. Text language: Latin.

Johann Sebastian Bach was able to appreciate good works by other composers, as is shown by contemporary accounts, and by a glimpse into what remains of his music library. Francesco Durante, maestro di cappella in Naples, was known in his time as an accomplished composer, who in his sacred works sought to achieve accommodation between the strict stile antico and the stile moderno of concert music at that time. This combination distinguishes his Mass in C minor, and it may have been what awakened Johann Sebastian Bach's interest in this work. He copied it about 1730, not merely for study purposes but in order to perform it, as is indicated by various alterations which he made to the composition. Bach replaced the Christe by a composition of his own, and for the Kyrie II he used Durante's music for the Gloria, making the alterations required by the different words. A worthwhile discovery!

SKU: CA.3500819

ISBN 9790007143251. Text language: Latin.

Johann Sebastian Bach was able to appreciate good works by other composers, as is shown by contemporary accounts, and by a glimpse into what remains of his music library. Francesco Durante, maestro di cappella in Naples, was known in his time as an accomplished composer, who in his sacred works sought to achieve accommodation between the strict stile antico and the stile moderno of concert music at that time. This combination distinguishes his Mass in C minor, and it may have been what awakened Johann Sebastian Bach's interest in this work. He copied it about 1730, not merely for study purposes but in order to perform it, as is indicated by various alterations which he made to the composition. Bach replaced the Christe by a composition of his own, and for the Kyrie II he used Durante's music for the Gloria, making the alterations required by the different words. A worthwhile discovery! Score and parts available separately - see item CA.3500800.

SKU: BR.OB-5363-30

150 years of publication history had to elapse until a music text of the Mass in B minor was published that truly goes back to Johann Sebastian Bach's definitive version, inasmuch as it can be determined.

ISBN 9790004338568. 10 x 12.5 inches.

The new Breitkopf Urtext edition by Joshua Rifkin draws on all relevant sources to restore the Mass to the state in which Bach left it for posterity. This means, first, a clear separation of the Kyrie and Gloria from the earlier Missa of 1733. Moreover, in the Credo the Symbolum Nicenum Rifkin has faced the challenge of sweeping away the overlay of additions by C.P.E. Bach and eliminating his alterations more thoroughly than Friedrich Smend had in the Neue Bach Ausgabe of 1954 and in later editions as well.The NBA edition of this work has long been thought to be unsatisfactory, so in this case Breitkopf study score is better as well as a few euros cheaper. (Early Music Review)

150 years of publication history had to elapse until a music text of the Mass in B minor was published that truly goes back to Johann Sebastian Bach's definitive version, inasmuch as it can be determined.

SKU: BR.OB-5363-16

150 years of publication history had to elapse until a music text of the Mass in B minor was published that truly goes back to Johann Sebastian Bach's definitive version, inasmuch as it can be determined.

ISBN 9790004338537. 10 x 12.5 inches.

The new Breitkopf Urtext edition by Joshua Rifkin draws on all relevant sources to restore the Mass to the state in which Bach left it for posterity. This means, first, a clear separation of the Kyrie and Gloria from the earlier Missa of 1733. Moreover, in the Credo the Symbolum Nicenum Rifkin has faced the challenge of sweeping away the overlay of additions by C.P.E. Bach and eliminating his alterations more thoroughly than Friedrich Smend had in the Neue Bach Ausgabe of 1954 and in later editions as well.The NBA edition of this work has long been thought to be unsatisfactory, so in this case Breitkopf study score is better as well as a few euros cheaper. (Early Music Review)

150 years of publication history had to elapse until a music text of the Mass in B minor was published that truly goes back to Johann Sebastian Bach's definitive version, inasmuch as it can be determined.

SKU: BR.OB-5363-26

150 years of publication history had to elapse until a music text of the Mass in B minor was published that truly goes back to Johann Sebastian Bach's definitive version, inasmuch as it can be determined.

ISBN 9790004338551. 10 x 12.5 inches.

The new Breitkopf Urtext edition by Joshua Rifkin draws on all relevant sources to restore the Mass to the state in which Bach left it for posterity. This means, first, a clear separation of the Kyrie and Gloria from the earlier Missa of 1733. Moreover, in the Credo the Symbolum Nicenum Rifkin has faced the challenge of sweeping away the overlay of additions by C.P.E. Bach and eliminating his alterations more thoroughly than Friedrich Smend had in the Neue Bach Ausgabe of 1954 and in later editions as well.The NBA edition of this work has long been thought to be unsatisfactory, so in this case Breitkopf study score is better as well as a few euros cheaper. (Early Music Review)

150 years of publication history had to elapse until a music text of the Mass in B minor was published that truly goes back to Johann Sebastian Bach's definitive version, inasmuch as it can be determined.

SKU: BR.PB-5559-07

Tchaikovsky's Hamburg Symphony in the Urtext

ISBN 9790004213698. 6.5 x 9 inches.

Like Hamlet Overture, originating at about the same time, Tchaikovsky's 5th symphony, composed in 1888, focuses on the human existential question: To be or not to be - triumph over fate or triumph of fate? The per aspera ad astra dramaturgy underlying the symphony culminates in triumphant certainty. If Tchaikovsky was initially euphoric, then severe self-doubts befell him after he conducted the premiere in St. Petersburg. These doubts demonstrably led him to make interpretative changes for the Hamburg performance in 1889, including a cut in the finale. Only with the extremely positive response to this performance did his doubts dispel. Nevertheless, Tchaikovsky himself never again conducted the 5th symphony. It was only posthumously established in the repertoire through Arthur Nikisch's commitment. The new edition's textual criticism takes into account besides the autograph and first edition also the first edition's orchestral parts, together with the piano arrangement produced from the autograph by Sergei Taneyev. In addition to thoroughly clarifying dynamics and articulation, the source comparison also corrected many errors and solved problematical passages, such as, for instance, the trombone entry in m. 372 of the finale. Considered, moreover, for the first time has been the composer's doubts about his work and its ambiguities, frequently successfully suppressed in the history of its performance and reception. Tchaikovsky's conductor's copy is unfortunately lost, hence his alterations made for the Hamburg performance are not precisely known. They have survived only indirectly through remarks that Willem Mengelberg left to posterity, for which he could draw on Tchaikovsky's conductor's score and oral references by the composer's brother Modest. So, anyone wishing to deal seriously with the work's certainties will not be able to do so in the future without having also to deal with its uncertainties.

Tchaikovsky's Hamburg Symphony in the Urtext.

SKU: BR.OB-5558-30

Tchaikovsky's Hamburg Symphony in the Urtext

ISBN 9790004344705. 10 x 12.5 inches.

Like Hamlet Overture, originating at about the same time, Tchaikovsky's 5th symphony, composed in 1888, focuses on the human existential question: To be or not to be - triumph over fate or triumph of fate? The per aspera ad astra dramaturgy underlying the symphony culminates in triumphant certainty. If Tchaikovsky was initially euphoric, then severe self-doubts befell him after he conducted the premiere in St. Petersburg. These doubts demonstrably led him to make interpretative changes for the Hamburg performance in 1889, including a cut in the finale. Only with the extremely positive response to this performance did his doubts dispel. Nevertheless, Tchaikovsky himself never again conducted the 5th symphony. It was only posthumously established in the repertoire through Arthur Nikisch's commitment. The new edition's textual criticism takes into account besides the autograph and first edition also the first edition's orchestral parts, together with the piano arrangement produced from the autograph by Sergei Taneyev. In addition to thoroughly clarifying dynamics and articulation, the source comparison also corrected many errors and solved problematical passages, such as, for instance, the trombone entry in m. 372 of the finale. Considered, moreover, for the first time has been the composer's doubts about his work and its ambiguities, frequently successfully suppressed in the history of its performance and reception. Tchaikovsky's conductor's copy is unfortunately lost, hence his alterations made for the Hamburg performance are not precisely known. They have survived only indirectly through remarks that Willem Mengelberg left to posterity, for which he could draw on Tchaikovsky's conductor's score and oral references by the composer's brother Modest. So, anyone wishing to deal seriously with the work's certainties will not be able to do so in the future without having also to deal with its uncertainties.

Tchaikovsky's Hamburg Symphony in the Urtext.