Par HAENDEL GEORG FRIEDRICH. ?Giulio Cesare in Egitto? is by far Handel?s most frequently performed opera owing its success not least to its subject matter, one of the best known love stories in world history. Already during Handel?s lifetime the popular work was often staged and therefore adapted by Handel for each of the performance conditions. The editor Hans Dieter Clausen has succeeded in editorially defining and practically presenting these adaptations ? essentially four versions ? on the basis of a meticulous study of the sources within the framework of the ?Halle Handel Edition?. The new edition allows for a performance of each of the four versions. The version of 1725 is particularly noteworthy because Handel newly devised the role of Sesto for the famous tenor Francesco Borosini. The libretto shows the Roman dictator Cesar in a friendly light. He instructs his enemy, the Egyptian tyrant Tolomeo, how to treat adversaries: he reconciles the widow and son of his enemy Pompeo who was murdered by Tolomeo: he is generous and just, hands on, but also diplomatic, thoughtful, aware of the limits of his power, and susceptible for art and nature. However, the actual protagonist of the opera is Cleopatra. In a masterly way Handel develops her character musically. In his extensive Foreword Hans Dieter Clausen not only decribes the genesis, historical background, reception and the edition of the opera, he also examines the musical and dramaturgical reworking of individual numbers in ?Giulio Cesare?. Handel was such an expert in adapting arias for new purposes and other characters that he did not only meet the needs at hand but often the new version surpassed the original. In this way, the reader gains, in passing, a well-founded insight into Handel?s work methods when designing and redevising his characters. The detailed Critical Commentary includes information on the comprehensive and highly complex source situation as well as on individual editorial decisions./ Répertoire / Chant et Orchestre

Par RAMEAU JEAN-PHILIPPE. Rameau’s only extant opera based on a libretto by Voltaire has come down to us in two versions (1745 and 1746), that of 1745 having long been regarded as lost. Volume IV.12 of the “Opera omnia Rameau” now provides a complete edition for the first time and thus the means to perform both versions. Voltaire refers to Metastasio in his libretto, in that he wanted to liberate the opera from the gallant milieu in order to make it a moralising and at the same time both edifying and political work of art for the stage. Following a prologue dedicated to the personified Envy, the tyrants Bélus and Bacchus are chased out of the Temple of Glory and Trajan is finally crowned with a laurel wreath for defeating the rebels, forgiving them and then transforming the Temple of Glory into a public temple. The music contains many remarkable passages, examples being a richly orchestrated overture, the famous monologue “Profonds abîmes du Ténare” with obbligato bassoons and Trajan’s artful final scene “Ramage d’oiseaux”. The opera’s individual instrumental movements are also available in the customary manner now as a practical separate edition. The performance material is available on hire./ Répertoire / Orchestre

Carl Maria von Weber's fame rests mainly on ?Der Freischütz'. The unprecedented success of this opera overshadowed all his other works and contributed to their increasing fall into oblivion. Certain works such as ?Preciosa', ?Oberon', and ?Euryanthe', the overtures, solo concertos and piano sonatas, the lieder and chamber works enjoyed great popularity and were widely known in Germany and abroad as late as the second half of the 19th century. However, any chance of a revival of Weber's influential and substantial oeuvre was wasted in the 1920s, when a complete edition - begun by Hans Joachim Moser and with potential contributors including Wilhelm Kempff, Hans Pfitzner, Max von Schillings, Fritz Stein and Richard Strauss - failed after the third volume.Ever since there have been numerous attempts to restart a complete edition of Weber's works, but as this kind of project would have required the co-operation of scholars from both sides of the inter-German border, the political situation after 1945 was not conducive to any such enterprise. Careful negotiations led to the first tangible steps in the 1980s. The intention, right from the beginning, was to place Weber's work in context, and not to separate his musical output from his influential work as a writer, critic and organiser in the musical field, but to publish his compositions together with his letters, diaries and other literary output as the best way to document the cross-fertilisation between his musical, literary and practical activities.Since the German re-unification both working-parties concerned - at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, and at the Musikwissenschaftliches Seminar, Detmold/Paderborn - have co-operated on the complete edition of the musical works (c. 45 volumes in 10 series: sacred music - cantatas, odes and other occasional works - stage works - lieder and vocal works - orchestral works - chamber music - music for piano - piano reductions - miscellanea, arrangements and orchestrations - works of doubtful attribution). The diaries (6-8 vols.) are edited in Berlin and the letters (8-10 vols.) and other writings (2 vols.) in Detmold. This complete edition aims to be a reliable basis of scholarly debate as well as for the authentic performance practice of Carl Maria von Weber's music. Conforming to the standards of recent historico-critical editions, the textual material will be based on all available authentic sources, accompanied by a detailed documentation of the genesis and a list of variants for each work. The musicological importance of the works will be evaluated by placing them in their historical context, the presentation of their genesis, history and Critical Commentaries. The letters, writings and diaries will be treated as inter-related and relevant to each other in the commentaries, therefore readers should benefit from a wealth of concise information and cross-references. / Score

New Edition of the Complete Works V/5. Par SCHUBERT FRANZ. In addition to his symphonies, Franz Schubert also wrote and handed down to posterity a total of eight finished concert overtures (two of them in two versions) between ca. 1811 and 1819. With the exception of the “Overture in D” (D 4) to the comedy “Der Teufel als Hydraulicus” (“The Devil as Engineer”) and the “Overture in D” (D 26), whose original title was cut out of the manuscript, they are all compositions which are associated neither with a drama nor a programme. They thus embody the type of the pure concert overture at an astonishingly early point in the history of music and are also in keeping with this terminologically by virtue of explicitly not having any other appellations whatsoever in the title: the epithet common for two works “in the Italian style” was only added posthumously. Our volume sees publication for the first time of the “Italian Overture in C” (D 591) in its two authentic versions, this being in contrast to the performance tradition based on a potpourri of the sources. The widely handed-down but corrupted musical course of the “Overture in D” (D 590) has likewise been rectified for the first time. Overshadowed by his symphonies, Schubert’s overtures have hitherto been largely undervalued both in their reception and in musical practice – including the “Overture in E minor” (D 648), which sees Schubert venturing into radically new spheres of expression to a greater extent than in virtually any other of his works./ Recueil / Orchestre

Par ROSSINI GIOACHINO. Rossini's popular overture is now available with complete performance material on sale. It is newly edited based on the forthcoming volume of the 'Works of Gioachino Rossini' (BA10506). This scholarly-critical practical edition contains almost two works in one as Rossini composed this overture firstly for his opera 'Aureliano in Palmira' and then also used it in 'The Barber of Seville'. The two overtures differ simply in their instrumentation. This new edition is an Urtext edition. Free of later additions to the instrumentation and other changes, it reproduces this famous work in the version which Rossini intended. Conductors can nowchoose to perform the overture to 'The Barber of Seville' without the frequently added second flute, second oboe and drums, which were not part of the opera's original instrumentation. First Urtext edition of the popular overture Foreword (Ger/Eng/It) Optimal page-turns in the parts/ Répertoire / Orchestre