SKU: BR.PB-5581

ISBN 9790004213919. 10 x 12.5 inches.

A Programmatic Declaration of BeliefFelix Mendelssohn Bartholdy composed his Reformation Symphony for the celebrations marking the 300th anniversary of the Confessio Augustana, the Protestant declaration of faith. Owing to various and only partially explained reasons, there was no performance in 1830, the year in question; it was only two years later that the composer conducted the premiere of his work, now heavily revised, in Berlin. There was only one more performance in Mendelssohn's lifetime, this one conducted by Julius Rietz in Dusseldorf; the composer had since distanced himself from his opus.Conceived for the concert hall, the symphony formulates its theological references through the integration of various motives. This occurs in the finale, for example, in which Mendelssohn quotes the Luther chorale Ein feste Burg in the flute, from where it builds up to a triumphant principal theme. The strong extra-musical aspect must have been one of the reasons for the composer's later avoidance of this score, especially since Mendelssohn was becoming increasingly skeptical about explicitly programmatic music in the instrumental domain. Next to the Dusseldorf performance material of 1837, two scribal copies have been examined for the first time; they transmit the main stages of the version of 1830.

SKU: BR.PB-14615

The study score (,,Studien-Edition) is available at G. Henle Verlag.

ISBN 9790004214909. 10 x 12.5 inches.

The Famous One in the Leading EditionBeethoven spent a relatively long time on his 5th Symphony. Thus, first sketches can already be found from as early as 1804, four years before the work was premiered in Vienna in December 1808. Not only impressive is its striking opening theme, letting everyone know immediately that this is Beethoven being played, but also its nickname symphony of fate. Nothing in the sources prefigures the much-cited fate, musically knocking here at the door. The autograph of the score and the set of parts prepared from it, including Beethoven's revisions, serve as the main sources of this Urtext edition, together with the missing copy of the score, now extant only incomplete in photographs, and the original edition of the parts authorized by Beethoven. The new performance material is based on the recently published volume of the New Beethoven Complete Edition.