SKU: BR.SON-442
ISBN 9790004803509. 10 x 12.5 inches.
This volume contains three reworkings and orchestrations of religious works by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy which were originally set for smaller ensembles (solo voices, four-part chorus and organ). They were composed at different times and for different occasions, two of them as commissions. The anthem ,,Why, o Lord, delay forever MWV A 19 was originally the sacred vocal piece MWV B 33, published in England in 1841 with the additional title ,,[…] The Thirteenth Psalm, and in Germany in the same year as ,,Lass, o Herr, mich Hilfe finden with the title ,,Drei geistliche Lieder which was composed at the suggestion of the English literature and music lover Charles B. Broadley who also provided the paraphrase of the psalm text. After Mendelssohn had refused an initial request by Broadley to furnish the anthem post festum with an organ prelude, the composer did not want to turn down a second request to orchestrate the work and he even expanded the existing material with a lengthy closing fugue involving additional trumpets and timpani. The ,,Ave Maria MWV B 19 was written in connection with Mendelssohn's appointment as municipal music director, a position which at the same time included the responsibility for the musical organization of church services. The instrumentation of the work with an accompaniment of two clarinets and two bassoons as well as low strings was due to the fact that the organ in Dusseldorf's principal church St. Lambertus was out of order for an extended period of time, and Mendelssohn considered this solution explicitly only as a surrogate for the organ should there be none. A further psalm paraphrase in English, this time by William Bartholomew, of the hymn ,,Hear my prayer MWV B 49 was set to music in early 1844; the orchestration of the organ part commissioned by the distinguished Dublin musician Joseph Robinson was not completed until 1847 so that the premiere finally only took place after Mendelssohn's death. In the further course of the century ,,Hear my prayer would, particularly in the version with organ accompaniment, come to enjoy great popularity in Great Britain and Ireland.
SKU: BR.SON-433
ISBN 9790004802892. 10 x 12.5 inches.
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's violin concerto op. 64 had - like many of his other works - a lengthy genesis: it is in the summer of 1838 that surviving documents first mention the promise made to his friend Ferdinand David, concert master of the Leipzig Gewandhaus, to write, besides a sonata, a grand solo concerto for him. Ultimately, work on this opus continued - with some longer interruptions - until September 1844. Even then, it owed its preliminary completion in no small measure to the constant urging of the prospective solo violinist. But after the ,,official handing-over of the parts to David and a first joint rehearsal of the concert in Leipzig Mendelssohn continued working on the score. There subsequently began an intensive correspondence with David between Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main, where Mendelssohn resided with his family, in particular concerning issues of the principal part and the reworking of the solo cadence. In March 1845 the then current version of the work was premiered in a subscribers' concert in Leipzig.This volume deals with Mendelssohn's first complete manuscript of the score with the corrections contained therein, including all surviving drafts and sketches; also included is the epistolary evidence of the correspondence with Ferdinand David prior to the premiere. The further developments up to the printing of the main version of op. 64 by Breitkopf & Hartel are dealt with in Series II, Vol. 7 of the edition.
SKU: BR.SON-427
ISBN 9790004803080. 10 x 12.5 inches.
Based on the conviction that all material authored by its composer belongs to the musical work as such and therefore needs to be published, this volume collects all surviving drafts that Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy made for his magnum opus, the oratorio Elijah op. 70. It not only incorporates preliminary studies and sketches that by no means always take a direct route to a specific version of the work, but also those passages that were eliminated from already completed texts and that are of special analytical interest. Due to Mendelssohn's way of working and the particular circumstances of source transmission at the end of his life a considerable number of later discarded movements as well as revised versions have come down to us. All these sources provide us with detailed information both about the composer's work method and about the genesis of the composition in question. The volume prepared by the editor-in-chief of the Mendelssohn complete edition contains all known autograph sources with annotation referring to the genesis of Elijah, as well as other surviving, as yet unspecified related material. The wealth of documents, compiled and arranged in an exemplary fashion and presented in an unconventional scholarly format, is reproduced in all its complexity while at the same time enabling users in a highly illustrative way to trace details of Mendelssohn's modus operandi. The edition of sketches and drafts, revised and discarded settings of Elijah hereby constitutes a remarkable example of a creative approach to the object of research that nevertheless strictly adheres to the historical facts.Awarded the German Music Edition Prize 2023.
SKU: BR.SON-438
ISBN 9790004803325. 9 x 12 inches.
The four-hand piano version of the Scottish Symphony was written by Mendelssohn in 1842, after he had finished the orchestral score, but before it was printed. A piano arrangement was an important element of publicity for him and his publisher, since this was the most effective way of getting an orchestral work known. When considering what a creative spirit Mendelssohn was, it is not surprising that he substantially altered the first and fourth movements in his arrangement, which, in its turn, left its mark on the score. The great diffusion of the work - and of the four-hand piano version above all - is certainly due in part to the fact that after its first edition by Breitkopf & Hartel in Leipzig, parallel editions were released in France and England, whereby a thank-you note from Prince Albert to Mendelssohn even suggests that he and his wife, Queen Victoria, played through the work at the piano from the dedicatory copy.
SKU: BR.SON-429
ISBN 9790004803097. 10 x 12.5 inches. German / English.
The Critical Report on the oratorio Elijah concludes the five-volume edition of this major work by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. It presents - by way of exception in the form of a volume separate from the music editions - the summary of all the editorial commentaries particularly associated with the early versions (Volume V/11A) and the final version (Volume V/11) of Elijah, which has appeared in print. With the piano reduction (Volume V/11B) and the volume containing sketches and discarded versions (Volume V/11C), the Critical Report interweaves in other ways: Since it was possible to realize an independent, self-contained commentary for the former one, the present complete report only contains the relevant source overviews and descriptions but no source evaluation and text-critical remarks. The volume of sketches and discarded versions, on the other hand, containing a classification and comments on all the musical documents the composer had not intended for the public - among them, in particular, the documentation of the work's modification for the final version - serves not least as a supplement and practical illustration of the verbal explanations contained in the Critical Report. Thus, the Critical Report, as Volume V/11D of the Edition, is intended to bundle, systematize and provide conclusive commentaries on the documents transmitted in connection with the Elijah, including not only the musical, but also all written documents - libretto drafts, correspondence, sources on the (English) reception -- that are specifically presented in this volume. The Critical Report on Elijah contains the presentation and evaluation of a total of six source collections and nearly 260 individual sources, including no fewer than 20 libretto drafts written by Mendelssohn himself or with his participation. An essential component is also a detailed chronology of the work's genesis. Mendelssohn's creative work on his second oratorio took an unusually long period of twelve years, in fact almost a third of his life.Awarded the German Music Edition Prize 2023.
SKU: BR.SON-451
ISBN 9790004803615. 9 x 12 inches.
The Overture for Harmoniemusik in C major op. 24 MWV P 1 by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy is a special work in two respects: on the one hand, it is unique in its instrumentation in the composer's oeuvre - in the main version for 23 wind instruments; on the other hand, it exists in several versions originating from Mendelssohn himself, namely a variant for eleven wind instruments from 1826 and two arrangements for piano four hands from 1838. These versions, called Nocturno and Overture for Harmonie- and Militairmusik respectively - form the content of the present volume. The outstanding position of the composition is also underlined by a considerable variety of sources, by a number of unresolved questions connected with its composition, e.g. concerning the specifics of the contemporary instruments to be used, and by the fact that the overture in the extended wind version was the only piece of this body of works that the self-critical composer considered worthy of publication. The inspiration for its composition ultimately goes back to a stay by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and his father in 1824 at the Baltic Sea resort of Doberan (then: Dobberan), where the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin maintained a summer residence surrounded by members of his court orchestra of national renown. Thus, the music sketched there was initially not given a title, but was always referred to in the Mendelssohn family as Dobberan harmony music in reference to the place associated with it.
SKU: BR.SON-453
ISBN 9790004803639. 10 x 12.5 inches.
This Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy anthology contains 19 sacred vocal works in various choral and sometimes additional solo settings, with organ, harpsichord, or basso continuo accompaniment. Among these pieces composed from 1821 to 1847 are six works that were not published during Mendelssohn's lifetime. Seven of the works presented are each extant in at least one other authorized version that has also been edited here. The occasions and circumstances of their composition vary as much as their musical structures and characteristics: Several were intended for specific performances; others were written from the outset for publication.
SKU: BR.SON-452
ISBN 9790004803622. 10 x 12.5 inches.
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy lived in the heyday of men's choruses. Early on, the composer had encountered the genre by way of his teacher Carl Friedrich Zelter and his Berlin Liedertafel, founded in 1809, had then gathered his own experience from the Leipzig Liedertafel societies, and was in contact with a number of male choral societies throughout his lifetime. Nevertheless, his relation to male choral singing was characterised not only by his inclination, but also by critical distance. The festive compositions for male chorus and orchestra forming the content of this volume are all commissioned works, two of which, the so-called Gutenberg-Kantate and the Festgesang an die Kunstler on a text by Friedrich Schiller, also appeared in print during Mendelssohn's lifetime.
SKU: BR.SON-431
ISBN 9790004803103. 10 x 12.5 inches.
A mystifying question of versions surrounds the Italian: right after the world premiere in London, Mendelssohn is unsatisfied with his symphony. Since he no longer has the score with him, he writes it down afresh (except for the opening movement), but stops at three quarters of the way. In the meantime, trusted experts weigh in with their views. Fanny Hensel writes to her brother: I dont like the change in the first melody at all; why did you make it? Nevertheless, Felix continues to busy himself with the first movement, but ultimately finds no more time for it and leaves it primarily in the form of the complete early version of 1833, which is published posthumously and remains, to this day, a standard repertoire piece in all concert halls. The revised torso, in turn, was long ignored. It was published in this volume, yet it is clear that the three movements of the incomplete final version of 1834 were from the composers viewpoint not at all ready for publication, seeing that Mendelssohn had never critically reviewed them after having penned them.
SKU: BR.SON-425
ISBN 9790004802809. 10 x 12.5 inches.
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy fundamentally revised his Elijah after its successful world premiere in Birmingham in summer 1846. However, the individual layers of this revision are less visible in the autograph score than in the piano-vocal score that was made parallel to it and which the composer kept working on for its simultaneous publication in England and Germany.Awarded the German Music Edition Prize 2023.
SKU: BR.SON-441
ISBN 9790004803493. 10 x 12.5 inches.
The circumstance that Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy searched all his life in vain for suitable material for an opera easily obscures the fact that he actually produced a considerable output of incidental music - from the Singspiele of his childhood and youth up to the large-scale works of incidental music of the 1840s for the Prussian king Friedrich Wilhelm IV.; also an opera fragment based on the Loreley material has survived.The volume ,,Kleinere Buhnenwerke (Minor stage works) of the complete edition contains - with the exception of the above-mentioned scores - all other works that can be attributed to the genre of musical drama, whereby the term ,,stage works is applied in a broad sense, since they also comprise pieces that are on the border between a concertante and a stage performance: several fragments from his childhood years, the contribution, published in 1833, for a festival of the Berlin poet Wilhelm Emil Julius, four works of incidental music for the Dusseldorf theatre (1833-1835) and a piece of convenience for the Leipzig theatre (music for Ruy Blas with the first version of the corresponding overture of 1839). In addition to these (complete and fragmentary) scores, the volume includes arrangements of individual movements of these works. It therefore represents a compilation of works which in terms of instrumentation, character and dimensions are extremely diverse - and today for the most part unknown.
SKU: BR.SON-419
ISBN 9790004803059. 10 x 12.5 inches.
The year 1828 was a Durer Year (300th anniversary of death), and the Berlin Durer Festival was looking for a suitable composer to write the festival cantata. The renowned Carl Friedrich Zelter turned down the offer and recommended his pupil instead, the 18-year-old Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. He accepted, and, within a few weeks, the Festmusik MWV D1, was finished, his first full-scored sacred vocal work. Mendelssohns Festmusik subsequently fell into oblivion despite its much-applauded world premiere. The specific context and the rather wooden libretto most likely proved too prohibitive even though the young composer had given his best. This can now be confirmed for the first time by consulting the new printed edition.
SKU: BR.SON-455
ISBN 9790004803653. 9 x 12 inches.
Between 1834 and 1847 Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy composed a total of 28 songs for mixed voices, i.e. for two female (soprano and alto) and two male (tenor and bass) voices each. The pieces are arranged so that they can be sung by four individual singers as well as by smaller ensembles or large choirs. The composer had almost two-thirds of these works published by Breitkopf and Hartel in the collections opp. 41, 48 and 59, combining partly already existing and partly newly composed songs into a loose cycle of six songs each. The purpose of such occasional music was clear to him: ... the most natural music of all is when four people go for a walk together, in the forest, or on a boat, and then immediately carry the music with them and in them. The present volume contains all the songs published and unpublished during his lifetime, as well as their versions, which owe their various performance contexts.
SKU: BR.SON-421
ISBN 9790004802663. 9 x 12 inches.
Nearly an entire decade lies between the first mention (1831) and the printing (1840) of the Trio op. 49. Mendelssohn kept trying to set it to paper, but he was probably again making too many demands on this work, his first in the piano trio genre. Yet his efforts were immediately rewarded: It is the master trio of the present, and Mendelssohn the Mozart of the 19th century, proclaimed Robert Schumann, who was also to compose a landmark D minor Trio seven years later. Mendelssohn's second Trio op. 66 was composed with a relatively light hand in 1845. Over and beyond the familiar Trios opp. 49 and 66, the corresponding volume of the Leipziger Mendelssohn-Ausgabe contains sketches and drafts in the same scoring, which were not further developed.
SKU: BR.SON-422
ISBN 9790004802670. 9 x 12 inches.
The music world has long been familiar with Mendelssohn's celebrated, standard-setting Piano Trio in D minor op. 49. No one, however, knew how many stages this masterpiece went through before it was finally published in 1840. According to preliminary sketches that can no longer be reconstructed, the early version of the of the work in its traditional piano-trio scoring was written in spring 1839. It was given its first performance at the Mendelssohn home in Berlin and remained unpublished. The following year, Mendelssohn brought out a version of the work with flute instead of violin at the request of an English publisher. He had already strongly reworked the original version for the publication. Another revision was made of the flute version, which not only took into account the different technical possibilities of a wind instrument, but also affected the compositional substance of the work. Thus Mendelssohn very nearly did write his D minor Piano Trio three times!
SKU: BR.SON-437
ISBN 9790004803158. 10 x 12.5 inches.
Nine variegated Sacred Vocal Works with Orchestra by Mendelssohn have been compiled in this volume. They stem not only from various creative phases of the composer, but also in view of their vocal settings show up marked differences and thus reflect the variety of Mendelssohns creative oeuvre. One shared aspect is that all nine works remained unprinted during the composers lifetime. Only the Lauda Sion achieved celebrity; it was published with the posthumously attributed opus number 73 and took its place next to other choral works by Mendelssohn already in the 19th century. Now published within the Mendelssohn Complete Edition, it boasts a text-critically revised score available in many cases for the first time, and from which impulses for musical practice are sure to arise.
SKU: BR.SON-423
ISBN 9790004802656. 9 x 12 inches.
It is significant that the highly self-critical Mendelssohn could envision if at all only four-hand piano arrangements of his Concert Overtures nos. 2, 3 and 4. He made it clear to the publisher Breitkopf & Hartel that a two-hand version would find no admirers. Since Mendelssohn made his own arrangements of the Hebrides Overture (op. 26) and the Overture zur schoenen Melusine (op. 32), this gives the Leipzig Mendelssohn Complete Edition the opportunity to bring out a slender supplementary volume to the orchestral scores of the four Concert Overtures (LMA I/8).
SKU: BR.SON-443
ISBN 9790004803516. 10 x 12.5 inches.
Mendelssohn's ConfessionThe Reformation Symphony, misleadingly numbered posthumously as 5 by its publishers, was Mendelssohn's first confrontation with the large symphonic form in Beethoven's wake. Linking it conceptually with the 300th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession in 1830 seems to have first occurred late in the progress of its composition, yet the premiere did not take place until 1832 and ultimately even enabled the composer to distance himself completely from his work and its concept. Thanks to access to a new source [or, ... new access to sources... or ...new access to a source...?], this edition can now finally refute the legend that a separate original or early version of the symphony once existed.
SKU: BR.SON-424
ISBN 9790004802595. 10 x 12.5 inches.
Mendelssohn's first completed work for a large scoring, the Singspiel Soldatenliebschaft, is also the first of his stage works. The successful performance of the lovely operetta (thus the composer to his librettist) on 11 December 1820 to celebrate his fathers birthday astonished the family and convinced them for good that the 11-year-old was predetermined for a career in music. The overture and 14 vocal numbers gave the young composer ample opportunity to prove his talent. Although the Soldatenliebschaft is occasionally mentioned in the correspondence of the Mendelssohn family, and the music was not completely unknown in Weimar as well, the work was neither published nor performed in public during the composers lifetime. Now that the score has been released in the Complete Edition, the publisher was preparing the performance material as well, so that the work can be made available to theaters.
SKU: SU.00220524
This CD Sheet Music™ collection contains the wealth of solo and duo piano music by Edvard Grieg and Felix Mendelssohn. GRIEG: Lyric Suites (Books I-X), Concerto in A minor, Holberg Suite, Norwegian Folk Songs & Dances, Peer Gynt Suites (Nos. 1 & 2), Piano Pieces after His Own Songs (Series 1 & 2), Two Nordic Melodies, Two Waltz-Caprices, and more MENDELSSOHN: Allegro Brilliant, Capriccio Brillante, Caprices (Nos. 1-3), Piano Concertos (Nos. 1 & 2), Rondo Brillante, Songs Without Words (Books I-VIII), Variations Sérieuses, and more Also includes composer biographies and relevant articles from the 1911 edition of Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians 1600+ pages
Please note, customers using Macintosh computers running macOS Catalina (version 10.5) have reported hardware compatibility issues with this product. If you encounter these issues, we recommend copying the entire contents of the disk to a contained folder on a thumb drive or other storage device for use on your Mac.
