Misidentified Raff piano composition

[cypressdome]

While in the process of transferring some scores from the National Library of Spain to IMSLP I ran across a work by Raff that has been misidentified by the original publisher and whose actual identity eludes me.  The work can be found here: http://bdh.bne.es/bnesearch/detalle/3782966. It was published around 1877 by Choudens who identified it as Nuit étoilée: nocturne pour piano, op.29 which it can't be as opus 29 was destroyed by Raff according to the catalog at raff.org.  Please enlighten me Raff gurus! Thanks!

[Mark Thomas]

As you say, it isn't op.29. Whatever it was originally, it has been retitled I think because from memory (I can't access my references just now), there's nothing with a title like "Starry Night". I'll check and get back to you.

[Mark Thomas]

Phew! Not too difficult this time. It is his Op.39, not 29: Notturno d'après une Romance de François Liszt, written in October 1847 and published by Kistner the same year.

[cypressdome]

Thanks for the quick response! I hope you don't mind me asking but how were you able to identify it? Opus 39 seems to be a rare score judging from the few institutions reporting it in their holdings through Worldcat. It also doesn't appear to have been among his more popular compositions during his lifetime as I can only find references to the Kistner first edition--no reprints, no subsequent editions. Do you have a copy of or an incipit from the Kistner edition?  Thanks!

[eschiss1]

Hrm. Just noticed something myself...

Actually, it's been scanned in at BSB. Right here. All the more reason for us to upload it to IMSLP in both versions, I should think, the Kistner and the Choudens...

[cypressdome]

Thanks Eric! It appears that BSB just added it to their digital library on Oct. 23d but I guess I missed seeing it in their RSS feed.

[eschiss1]

They have picked up the pace again lately- I was surprised by that Herbeck upload (... for another topic, there...) (interesting "digitisation on demand" thing though, I hadn't known about it)

[Mark Thomas]

cypressdome asked

I hope you don't mind me asking but how were you able to identify it?

I'd like to say that it was my encyclopaedic knowledge of Raff but actually I have a PDF copy of the score. Not the Kistner original (grateful thanks to Eric for tracking that down) but a later French edition. I just looked through Raff's Nocturnes until I found it. Simples...