German.

An important addition to our newly produced orchestral materials is the first publication of vocal scores of Wagner?s ten great operas, in every important version, based on the Complete Edition. * The score corresponds to the performance materials from the Complete Edition. * For practical use in rehearsal cues and bar numbers throughout. * The publisher has secured the services of renewed musicologists associated with the Richard Wagner Complete Edition who convey detailed information in critical forewords. * The forewords are given in three languages(German, English, French). * Uniform and attractive front cover designs with reproductions of paintings from the Wagner era underline the series design of the edition. DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG ?Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is today still considered a German festival and national opera: this evaluation is borne out by the opera?s performance history, the history of its reception and customary performance practice. Critical minds will perhaps recall the quotation from Friedrich Nietzsche?s publication \"Jenseits von Gut und Böse\" [Beyond Good and Evil] in which the Vorspiel [Prelude] to Meistersinger is described as ?magnificent, ornate and ponderous art? and Wagner?s music in general as being ?rough and coarse?. This music according to Nietzsche possesses ?no trace of the fine southern clarity of the sky and nothing of grace?, but instead ?a cumbersome garb, with a touch of licentious barbarism and solemnity? and ?even a certain degree of ungainliness?. Nietzsche?s evaluation is regarded by many as an insight into the essence of the matter, although it is evident that Nietzsche was exaggerating in order to be provocative. What is more important today is however that this characterisation appears to have been the result of an approach to the performance of Meistersinger which had neglected or even gone as far as to misappropriate elements of this work. This is also the conclusion reached in the Meistersinger Edition of the Critical Complete Edition of the Musical Works of Richard Wagner (Richard Wagner, Sämtliche Werke, Vol. 9, I-III, edited by Egon Voss, Mainz 1979-1987). It has in fact been established that the first print of the score published by B. Schott?s Söhne in Mainz in 1868 contained numerous errors and omissions, particularly with regard to dynamic markings and articulation. The difference between staccato dots and dashes which has an influence on the tone was simply ignored. The substantial omission of these staccato markings unambiguously draws attention to the fact that Wagner intended a lighter-weight sound than was produced in adherence the first edition. The same also holds true for the dynamic markings which were submitted to a general levelling process in the first edition, thereby entirely masking their original broad scope of differentiation. [?] When the saying ?the music sets the tone? is cited, it is in actual fact tempo, dynamics which are implied. If the new findings incorporated into the Meistersinger edition of the Critical Complete Edition are taken seriously, this will inevitably produce a new Meistersinger sound.? (Egon Voss, quoted from the foreword of the new Meistersinger vocal score; translated by Lindsay Chalmers-Gerbracht).

English.

The composer Arthur Sullivan and the dramatist W. S. Gilbert joined forces in 1871, and over the next .25 years produced a series of 14 comic operas. Sullivan's tuneful and memorable melodies and Gilbert's amusing words and dialogue .- which frequently made fun of British national characteristics and institutions such as the Royal Navy .- are as fresh and amusing today as they were over a hundred years ago. Songs vary immensely in style, and apart from the clearly comical include others, such as 'The flowers that bloom in the spring', that though at first suggesting seriousness, on close examination reveal deliberately ludicrous words and ridiculous sentiments .- all to the delight of the audience!