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German Music Edition Prize 'Best Edition' Awarded to Three Schott Publications

Jan. 25, 2023

The German Music Edition Prize ‘Best Edition’ was awarded to Schott publications in three categories.

Hindemith - Schottverlag. Der Briefwechsel reveals the extensive correspondence between Paul Hindemith and the publishing house B. Schott's Söhne in Mainz, and comprises around 2800 documents. The protagonists are, on the one hand, Paul Hindemith and his wife Gertrud who, as a competent confidant, continued the business with the publishing house even after the death of her husband, and, on the other hand, the then owners of the publishing house, Ludwig and Willy Strecker, and some of their employees. Over a period from 1919 to 1967, the correspondence not only paints a vivid picture of Hindemith's relationship with his publishers, which developed into friendship over the decades, but also provides exclusive insights into the artistic developments and political upheavals of modernism - an extraordinary document of 20th-century music history. A PDF preview of the collection may be found here.

The volume Salome – Französische Fassung und Dresdner Retuschen [Salome – French Version and Dresden Retouches] from the Collected Richard Strauss Edition. The current volume presents two additional versions of Salome op. 54 personally compiled by Strauss after the composition of the German version (published in the RSW Series I, Vol. 3a): the first French Version prepared in cooperation with Romain Rolland in 1905 and published in 1906 and the Dresden Retouched Version, an adaptation dating from 1929 for lyrical soprano. Neither of these versions has up to now been accessible to a wider audience. The volume also includes the transition passage and conclusion of the individual edition of the Solo Scene dating from 1908 as a supplement to the RSW series I Vol. 3a. The current edition is constructed on preliminary work undertaken by Salome Reiser (1965–2014). She was the individual who discovered the retouches in a variety of conducting scores, thereby creating vital impulses for further research into this topic. She additionally succeeded in locating the decisive historical musical sources of the French Version, hereby laying the foundations for the edition. The documentation of the libretto and additional documents on the genesis and performance history of the versions in this sub-volume are published in full on the online platform: www.richard-strauss-ausgabe.de.


The third 'Best Edition' award went to the series Joy of Music – Discoveries from the Schott Archives. Founded in 1770 by Bernhard Schott in Mainz, the Schott music publishing house celebrated its 250th anniversary in 2020. The anniversary’s motto was ‘Joy of Music’ because Beethoven’sSymphony No. 9, published by Schott in 1826, is one of the most important works in music history, with Schiller’s famous final chorus ‘Ode to Joy’. To mark this anniversary, the Schott publishing house dug up and reedited treasures from its historical publishing archives. The anthologies are aimed at professional musicians and advanced amateurs and students interested in new discoveries off the standard repertoire. They mainly contain works from the Romantic era: virtuoso encore pieces, gems of salon music, expressive character pieces, and elaborate arrangements of well-known (opera) melodies. Many of the original compositions and arrangements were written by major virtuosos of the 19th century. Click here for more information about the series.

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