Original Version - Edition for Cello and Piano. Par SCHUMANN ROBERT. Schumann’s Cello Concerto Rediscovered In her first Urtext edition for Edition Peters, internationally renowned cellist Josephine Knight reveals Robert Schumann’s original version of his Cello Concerto in A minor Op. 129 – a piece he actually called a ‘Concertstück’ – removing generations of inauthentic editorial interventions. This is the only available modern scholarly edition of the work as Schumann originally conceived it, and restores the text from October 1850, based on the composer’s manuscript held in the Biblioteka Jagiellonska in Kraków. This Full Score matches the separately available edition for Cello and Piano (EP 73488). Matching orchestral material is also available from the publisher. Only modern Urtext edition based on Schumann’s original 1850 manuscript Many new corrections and clarifications, especially to the cello part Scholarly preface detailing history of the work and this edition by editor Josephine Knight, Piatti Professor of Cello at the Royal Academy of Music London Cello Part contains Josephine Knight's fingering and bowing suggestions Critical Commentary Cello and piano edition available separately from Edition Peters: orchestral parts available for rental Recording of the Concertstück featuring Josephine Knight available from Dutton Robert Schumann’s tragic last years have mired many of his greatest works in unnecessary doubt. The story of the suppression of his Violin Concerto by well-meaning friends is relatively well-known. Few, however, know that the version of the Cello Concerto that is routinely heard today is so far from Schumann’s original conception of the work – not only in details of phrasing and articulation, but also featuring a different ending with a bold final flourish from the cello. Composed in a burst of inspiration in two weeks in October 1850 shortly after he and Clara had moved to Düsseldorf, Schumann (who in 1850 was still in good health) never heard the piece performed. In an effort to promote a performance of the work, he gave the score to the cellist Robert Emil Bockmühl. Bockmühl made revisions that Schumann resisted, and the hoped-for performance never happened. Schumann’s health failed and he died aged just 46 in 1856. The Concerto, in an already substantially revised form, was premiered in 1860 but it was not given significant recognition until it was championed by Pablo Casals in the 20th century by which time (and since) the text for the work had accreted additions and alterations from generations of soloists. Now Josephine Knight, Piatti Professor of Cello at the Royal Academy of Music, London has returned to the original 1850 manuscript of the work, which is in the Biblioteka Jagiellonska in Kraków, to reveal Schumann’s original thoughts for the first time in a modern Urtext edition. The edition reflects Schumann’s original conception of the work as a Concertstück and restores Schumann’s musical text, free of posthumous interventions. ‘My ultimate wish,’ says the editor, ‘is to give performers both access to, and confidence that they are playing from, an edition which is a true representation of the piece in its original form, no matter how much more difficult this might be. I found that incorporating the changes enabled the piece to take on a completely different character – one that is lighter and happier, even “cheerful”, as Schumann himself described the work.'/ Répertoire / Violoncelle et Piano

in Full score. Par WAGNER RICHARD. Richard Wagner put his supreme effort, as well as his earnings, into constructing the perfect festival theater in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth where his masterpiece, the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, could be performed in a manner which would conform to his vision of how the drama should unfold. Wagner's own perception was that the unique and revolutionary character of his monumental tetralogy necessitated a special theater — one where the difficulties of staging an expansive drama could be surmounted, where changes of scene could be effected without halting the performance for vast lengths of time. Der Ring des Nibelungen, which is based on a medieval German epic, the Nibelungenlied, and Norse mythology, enlarged the expressive powers of German Romantic opera; today it also gives testimony to Wagner's willingness to venture into new areas for inspirational material. The third opera of the cycle, Siegfried, reproduced here in full score, presents the story of a youthful Germanic hero of legendary proportions, a young man without experience of fear, who slays the reptilian hoarder of ill-gotten, powerful golden treasures and rescues a banished goddess from fiery captivity. Performed during the heyday of Bismarck's Realpolitik, following decades of revolutionary and anarchic fervor, Siegfried is reputed to have social and political implications. In The Perfect Wagnerite, George Bernard Shaw discusses the opera in allegorical terms, and describes the heroic Siegfried as 'a born anarchist, the ideal of Bakoonin, an anticipation of the 'overman' of Nietzsche. ' Whether or not the political import of Richard Wagner's alleged revolutionary thought is of concern to the music lover of modern times, the influence and power of the operas of Der Ring des Nibelungen are indisputable. The crowning achievement of German music of the Romantic era, the Ring forged a new synthesis of music and drama on the largest scale, drawing on rich literary and philosophical resources to expand the dramatic possibilities of the opera as a musical form. Reproduced from the first edition (1876), which received Wagner's final approval, this full-size full score brings Siegfried, an important opera in the Ring and one of the most performed, recorded, studied, and admired operas of the Romantic era, to Wagner enthusiasts, opera lovers, and musicians at a moderate, affordable price. Reproduced from first 1876 edition. The third Ring opera, 'Siegfried' is here carefully reproduced from the authoritative edition of 1876 which Wagner himself approved. / Opéra-opérette / Répertoire / Opéra Full Score