The Song of the Earth, composed in the summer of 1908, is Mahler's best-known and most personal work. Reflecting drastic changes in his life, its immense emotional density is very moving. Until the very end, Mahler continued to refine the extremely differentiated instrumentation, as is evident in numerous retouchings in the autograph score and engraver's model. It is therefore all the more regrettable that he was neither able to perform his "Symphony in Songs" himself nor that he was involved in its printing. Unfortunately, in the posthumously published first edition of 1912 and the subsequent editions edited by Erwin Ratz and Karl Heinz Fuessl, many questions remained unanswered, while other were answered in a dubious way.
This edition is the first text-critical one of the work on a scientifically sound basis. It offers not only a more reliable musical text, but also systematically and lucidly prepared information on the sources, their transmission and evaluation. All editorial decisions have been documented in a transparently comprehensible manner - in particular those leading to new audible results. Work-related notes on performance practice, which for the first time include Mahler's conducting indications, offer valuable, indispensable interpretive aids. In addition to the regular five clarinet parts, the set of parts includes two additional parts (3rd clarinet/Eb clarinet, bass clarinet/3rd clarinet in places where the latter plays Eb clarinet) to allow performances with only four clarinets.
The completely revised piano reduction reproduces the orchestral texture true to the score without losing sight of playability. Both Mahler's piano autograph and the piano reduction by Woess, which was commissioned by the composer himself, served as an inspiration for this.
Textcritical Edition edited by Christian Rudolf Riedel [orch] Duration: 75' picc.4.4(cor ang).5(Eb-clar.Bb-clar).4(dble bsn) - 4.3.3.1 - 2hp.timp.perc(4) - str
-string parts with and without Mahler's bowing marks -(marked part is included with the set as a set-up aid) -scoring with two harps as arranged by Bruno Walter -spacious layout for optimal legibility -suitable page turns and cue notes -aids for orientation and instrument changes
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Austrian composer Alban Berg (1885-1935) composed the three-act opera Wozzeck between 1914 and 1922 after seeing a production of German playwright Georg Büchner's incomplete drama Woyzeck. Beginning the work in 1914, including the adaptation of Büchner's text into a libretto, Berg's obsession with completing the opera was interrupted by his serving in the Austro-Hungarian Army from 1915 to 1918 and during World War I, an experience which significantly altered his approach to Wozzeck. The plot, which depicts the lives of the inhabitants and soldiers of a rural German-speaking town, follows the title character as he is abused by the soldiers and deals with the infidelity of his wife, who he eventually murders before drowning himself. The opera ends with Wozzeck's son obliviously continuing to play with the other children as word of his murdered mother begins to spread. The opera finally premiered by the Berlin State Opera, Erich Kleiber conducting, on December 14, 1925, eleven years after Berg began work. It is considered the first avant-garde opera, and it famously employs atonality and Sprechgesang, although it does make use of leitmotifs and some classic forms to create some unity and coherence throughout the music and plot. The opera is performed often in both staged and concert settings. Instrumentation: 4.4(4th dEH).4+BCl.3+CBsn: 4.4.4.1: Timp(2).Perc(3-4): Clst.Hp: Str (4-4-3-3-3 in set): Banda (3 banda configurations used, but all banda players may be pulled from the pit orchestra): OnStg Pno: Vocal Soli (12 roles: STrebleATTTTBarBarBarBB): Mixed Choir.