SKU: BR.PB-5745

ISBN 9790004217078. 10 x 12.5 inches.

Immediately after finishing his First Symphony in B flat major op. 38, Robert Schumann wrote the present D minor Symphony in 1841. Despite its successful world premiere at the Leipzig Gewandhaus on 4 December 1841, this first version remained unpublished during the composer's lifetime. It took the great Johannes Brahms himself to recognize its qualities and commit himself actively and successfully to a renewed performance in 1889. We owe it to the many supporters of the two versions that they practically stand on an equal footing today, and are both often heard in the concert hall.

SKU: BR.PB-5694

ISBN 9790004216316. 10 x 12.5 inches.

In the fall of 1909 Sibelius wrote in his diary: At Koli! One of the greatest impressions in my life. Plans [for] 'La Montagne'! These plans proved to be for the Fourth Symphony. The composition process was not an easy one and in the end - according to his diary - Sibelius was struggling with God! and only just able to finish the work in time for the premiere in spring 1911: My new symphony is a total protest against present-day compositions. Nothing - absolutely nothing of the circus [in it]. This extraordinary work was at first found difficult to understand although its technical brilliance was recognized. The appreciation of the Fourth has, however, grown in the course of years.

SKU: BR.PB-5585

ISBN 9790004213957. 10 x 12.5 inches.

Little is known about the actual composition process of Lemminkainen and the performance and publication history is rather complex, resulting in a first complete printing of all the four movements en suite through the complete edition of Jean Sibelius Works only in 2013.In summer 1894 Sibelius went to Central Europe, carrying among others a plan for an opera freely based on the Kalevala in his mind. But during this trip he reassessed his composing: I think I have found my old self again, musically speaking. I think I really am a tone painter and a poet. As a result he abandoned his opera plans, but musical material may have found its way into the Lemminkainen pieces which he started composing during that time. Lemminkainen became popular from the beginning and has attained a fixed position in the concert repertoire.On Lemminkainen's Return Sibelius commented: I would like to see more pride in us Finns. Why should we be ashamed? This is the underlying thought in Lemminkainen's Return. Lemminkainen is just as good as the noblest of earls. He is an aristocrat, without question an aristocrat!.

SKU: BR.PB-5522-07

ISBN 9790004212530. 6.5 x 9 inches.

To all extents and purposes, Germany is the land of artists, wrote Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in 1831 while on his travels in Italy; but Italy, he added, is the land of art. Indeed, everywhere he went in Italy, the 22-year-old composer found impulses for his symphony: I have to save the work until I have seen Naples. But although the country fired his inspiration: It will be the merriest piece that I have ever written, he did not actually write the Italian Symphony there. This did not occur until early 1833, when Mendelssohn obtained a commission from London, where he then conducted the first performance in May 1833. Begun the following year, his revision of the piece remained fragmentary, and the composer no longer performed the work himself. The familiar London version thus represents the only closed form of the work which the composer presented to the public. This is the version of the Italian Symphony that is now appearing in the Breitkopf Urtext collection based on the Complete Edition.