Raff Te Deum

[eschiss1]

I recall mention of a 2013 Sterling recording of this work. I also note just now that either then or now Edition Nordstern has released a (first-edition?) score of it. Any opinions as to the quality of this new edition and other questions?

(Specifically

"Te Deum : für gemischten Chor und Orchester : für die kirchliche Begehung der Huldigungsfeier des Grossherzogs Carl Alexander von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach : WoO 16" - http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/903891340.

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, Eric, it's the first edition of the Te Deum, which was unpublished in Raff's lifetime. So the score, like all Edition Nordstern products, is newly typeset and comes with a foreword putting the work in its historical context, and a note of any errors in the autograph which the publisher has corrected. It and the parts were prepared for the Sterling recording in 2012, and I know that they were regarded as being of exemplary quality by the conductor and performers.

[Richard Moss]

Just a thought - I assume (please correct me if I'm wrong) that most performances - live or studio - make use of available published scores (many, I suspect, dating from Victorian times). 

Is there any provenance to these scores to say that either (i) they are as per the autograph score in the composer's hand or (ii) as noted for the Raff above, there is a conscientious list of publisher's 'corrections'.

Where the publisher does make changes to the autograph score, do we know if this tends to be for legitimate 'technical' reasons or for more 'sordid' commercial considerations.

This site has often set me wondering now - when I hear something, is that what the composer actually wrote??

Cheers

Richard

[eschiss1]

The original instruments-and-etc. movement comes under huge fire here but give the modern tendency of which they are a part some (imperfect, of course!) credit, I'd say, for wanting to shed a light on issues of provenance and chains of custody...

[Mark Thomas]

Richard: many recording booklets are very good at making clear the provenance of the scores for unsung works. Others, as you say, don't. I'm not at all sure what "sordid" commercial considerations a publisher would have for altering a composer's score when publishing it. Even removing a repeat wouldn't save paper...

I'm more concerned about the sort of situation which arose when Tudor recorded Raff's Violin Concerto No.1 - forgive another Raff example. The only published material for the work was a heavily "updated" late-romantic version, re-composed by the works' dedicatee August Wilhelmj. Although Tudor do make clear somewhere in the booklet that this is the case, there is little to warn the unwary buyer that this work is only partially by Raff. Luckily Raff's autograph was unearthed, the score was published (by Nordstern again) and recorded (by Sterling again). The number of "improved", "edited" and "simplified" editions of once-popular but tricky to play 19th century piano pieces are legion, for example. Anyone buying a recording of a Bruckner symphony knows that they need to check which edition is being played. Who would know that they might have to be equally wary when buying something by Bungert, or Jadassohn?