orchestra21

In 1851 Robert Schumann completed an extensive revision of his D minor symphony for performance and publication. Despite the composer’s own well-considered adjustments his first version of Op 120 from ten years earlier was preferred by Johannes Brahms, who subsequently published it over Clara Schumann’s objections. Conductors and composers, finding justification in these early aesthetic disagreements surrounding the symphony’s orchestration, have since made it common practice to re-revise Schumann’s own final version of the piece – most notably Gustav Mahler, whose retouching of a famous passage from the symphony for his own performances is above.

Tonight at the WCFSO we’ll leave the revisions and recompositions to Timo Andres and instead try to communicate the soundscape that Schumann himself intended for his Fourth Symphony.

I find it almost impossible to believe that the manuscript of six concertos presented by Bach to the Margrave of Brandenburg in 1721 does not exist in digital form [despite having been published in several different facsimile editions]. That is, until now!

Thus far I have scanned Bach’s title and dedication pages and his autograph of the complete Sixth Brandenburg Concerto. Above are a few pages from this digital debut but I would suggest heading over to my Flickr to view the entire manuscript – it is without question worth a closer look.

If you are in Iowa you can hear this piece and much more by Bach and his contemporaries performed tomorrow night at the WCFSO.

Among the many historical treasures housed – and, in recent years, posted – by the Library of Congress is the manuscript of Mozart’s Gran Partita Serenade for twelve wind instruments and bass. These are a few of my favorite pages from that document; I highly recommend a tour of the entire thing.

If you are in Iowa come hear the Gran Partita tonight at King Chapel on the campus of Cornell College [I am playing basset horn]. For those of you unable to make it check out this live recording of the astonishing theme and variation movement from a WCFSO performance I led a few years ago.