The St. John Passion was first performed in Leipzig on Good Friday of 1724. Written three years before the St. Matthew Passion it was a work Bach revised during the rest of his life in fact he did not leave us a definitive version either in print or fair copy. The sources give evidence of four different versions used at four performances - 1724 1725 around 1730 and during the last years of Bach's life. They often contain two or more readings for the same passage or even different movements that on different occasions occupied the same place in the work.Barenreiter's edition uses the final version IV as its basis with alternativemovements and readings contained in the appendices. A comprehensive preface in the study score (German/English) TP197 gives full information.- Full score performance material (BA5037) vocal score (BA5037-90) and study score (TP197) available for sale.

Les Troyens - The Trojans: Opera in 5 ActsBerlioz composed Les Troyens towards the end of his life drawing on Virgil?s epic poem The Aeneid which he had admired since his childhood. In his Memoirs he recounts how his father a country doctor read Virgil to him and how the story of Dido?s tragic fate reduced him to tears which he tried hard to conceal.The score was finished in April 1858 but he was unable to persuade the Paris Opera to mount it (his earlier opera Benvenuto Cellini had been a failure there in 1838) and eventually he agreed to allow the last three acts to be performed under the title Les Troyens Carthage. This took place at theThé tre-lyrique an enterprising but ill-equipped theatre in November 1863 and although it was much admired there were no more performances before Berlioz?s death in 1869.In the history of French music Les Troyens stand out as a grand opera that avoided the shallow glamour of Meyerbeer and Halévy but therefore paid the price of long neglect. In our own time the opera has finally come to be seen as one of the greatest operas of the 19th century.The vocal score to ?Les Troyens? presents the text Berlioz conceived as a great five act opera. During the composition of this work between 1856 and 1858 and up until June 1863 Berlioz perceived ?Les Troyens ? as one opera. Because of performance difficulties the composition had to be divided into two operas ?La Prise de Troie? and ?Les Toyens Carthage?.The vocal score is based on the three-volume New Berlioz Edition and also on the one-volume vocal score edition that under Berlioz?s supervision was privately printed in 1861-62 and then distributed. The appendix contains two complete scenes: The Sinon scene from the first act and the original finale from the fifth act.Urtext of the New Berlioz EditionFull score (BA5442) and vocal score (BA5442-90) available for salePerformance material (BA5442-72) available for hire