SKU: BR.BDV-629

Complete Letters in 35 Volumes and Supplements. Composed by Richard Wagner. Edited by Jo Forner and Klaus Burmeister. Linen. Complete works/textbook. Romantic period. Complete Works. 450 pages. Deutscher Verlag fur Musik #BDV 629. Published by Deutscher Verlag fur Musik (BR.BDV-629).

ISBN 9783370003611. 5.5 x 8 inches. German.

With the publication of Volume 11 in November 1999, Werner Breigs fundamentally new scholarly concept of Richard Wagners complete letters begins to make itself felt more strongly. The meticulously annotated volumes are illustrated with facsimiles and little known photos. Further enhancing the value of this edition are a number of letters, which were hitherto practically unavailable and are published here for the first time. The commentaries are based on many previously unpublished documents.

Concerning Volume 10 (published one year later than Volume 11) we have obtained the following fax by the English Wagner expert Stewart Spencer, who wittily praises Werner Breig's fundamental new concept:

There is a general problem of reviewing such magnificent volumes. They are the yardstick by which all other writings on Wagner will be judged. It is like sending someone to inspect the standard metre rule in Paris and asking them to review it. All one can say is that it exists and that it is in a class of its own. I'd like to congratulate you on its publication and thank you most warmly for picking up this edition. (Stewart Spencer, October 11, 2000)

Im Sommer 1861 kommt es zur endgultigen Trennung des Ehepaars Wagner. Nach Auflosung des gemeinsamen Pariser Haushalts lasst sich Minna Wagner in Dresden nieder wo sie ihre letzten Lebensjahre verbringt. All dies ist in den Briefen detailliert nachzulesen daneben aber auch die kunstlerischen Erfolge des Jahres: In Frankfurt dirigiert Wagner zum ersten Mal seinen ,,Lohengrin (zwolf Jahre nach der Urauffuhrung!) in Leipzig stellt er die ,,Meistersinger-Ouverture vor und in Wien veranstaltet er Konzerte mit Szenen aus seinen Opern. Biographisch einschneidend sind die vollstandige Amnestierung - nun darf Wagner auch wieder den Boden seiner sachsischen Heimat betreten - sowie die weitere Entfremdung und schliesslich die endgultige Trennung von seiner Ehefrau Minna.