1830 · Berlin
by BACH, Johann Sebastian 1685-1750
Berlin: Schlesinger'schen Buch- und Musikhandlung. Unter den Linden, No. 34 [PN 1571], 1830. Oblong folio. Modern quarter green cloth with light yellow paper boards. 1f. (recto title, verso blank), [1]-3 (list of subscribers), [i] (blank), 1f. (recto index of the 78 numbers contained in the score, verso blank), 5-190 pp. Engraved throughout.
With 140 subscribers including 11 royal persons and 129 others, listed by city: Berlin, Brandenburg, Breslau, Cassel, Cöln, Dessau, Dresden, Erlangen, Elberfeld, Frankfurth a.d.O, Frankfurth a.M., Freyberg, Göttingen, Halberstadt, Hamburg, Hamm, Hannover, Königsberg, Leipzig, London, Mainz, Marienwerder, München, Neubrandenburg, Nürnberg, Oels bei Ohlau, Paris, Potsdam, Prag, Rostock, Stettin, Stockholm, Wien, and Würzburg.
Some penciled performance markings including corrections and added notation.
Small monogrammatic stamp of the publisher ("A.S.") and indecipherable embossed stamps to lower margins of title.
Outer edges of first few leaves slightly frayed; occasional minor soiling.
A very good, crisp copy overall, with strong impression. First Edition (first or very early issue), distinguished by the lack plate number to foot of pp. 12, 42, 84, 118, and 176 and with the two eighth-note rests of the vocal part missing in the tenth measure on p. 37 (Crawford).
Schneider 112. Hoboken I, 27 (with incorrect plate numbers to foot of pp. 143 (1572) and 157 (1575)]. Crawford, p. 7. Fuld ,p. 171. Hirsch IV, 1136. Riemenschneider 1999. RISM B436.
Text by the poet "Picander" (Christian Friedrich Henrici, 1700-1764).
The arranger Adolf Berhard (1795-1866), a German music theorist, critic and pedagogue, was "one of the most influential theorists of the 19th century, Marx named and codified sonata form. ... [He] had become friends with the Mendelssohn family in 1826, and in 1829 he assisted Felix Mendelssohn with the important performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion." Sanna Pederson in Grove Music Online
The St. Matthew Passion, a sacred oratorio for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra with interspersed chorales and arias, sets chapters 26 and 27 of the Gospel of Matthew. Composed in 1727, it was first performed in Berlin on 11 March 1829 with Mendelssohn conducting. This highly important performance heralded a reawakening of interest in Bach's music.
"It was due to Mendelssohn's unwavering enthusiasm that in 1829, a century after the Leipzig performance, the St. Matthew Passion was produced under his leadership in Berlin. This was a dazzling revelation to the musical world since - apart from infrequent performances of the motets - hardly any of Bach's great vocal works had been heard before. In the following years, as a direct result of the performance, the two Passions and, in 1845, the Mass in B minor were published." Geiringer: Bach, p. 351.
"The St. Matthew Passion is by any standard a remarkable composition - one of the most complex of all Bach's vocal works and for many the most profound. Mendelssohn considered it to be 'the greatest of Christian works', and many other superlatives have continued to be accorded this emotionally powerful music, which almost every choral group aspires to perform." Boyd, ed.: J.S. Bach, p. 430.
A masterpiece of sacred music. (Inventory #: 40258)
With 140 subscribers including 11 royal persons and 129 others, listed by city: Berlin, Brandenburg, Breslau, Cassel, Cöln, Dessau, Dresden, Erlangen, Elberfeld, Frankfurth a.d.O, Frankfurth a.M., Freyberg, Göttingen, Halberstadt, Hamburg, Hamm, Hannover, Königsberg, Leipzig, London, Mainz, Marienwerder, München, Neubrandenburg, Nürnberg, Oels bei Ohlau, Paris, Potsdam, Prag, Rostock, Stettin, Stockholm, Wien, and Würzburg.
Some penciled performance markings including corrections and added notation.
Small monogrammatic stamp of the publisher ("A.S.") and indecipherable embossed stamps to lower margins of title.
Outer edges of first few leaves slightly frayed; occasional minor soiling.
A very good, crisp copy overall, with strong impression. First Edition (first or very early issue), distinguished by the lack plate number to foot of pp. 12, 42, 84, 118, and 176 and with the two eighth-note rests of the vocal part missing in the tenth measure on p. 37 (Crawford).
Schneider 112. Hoboken I, 27 (with incorrect plate numbers to foot of pp. 143 (1572) and 157 (1575)]. Crawford, p. 7. Fuld ,p. 171. Hirsch IV, 1136. Riemenschneider 1999. RISM B436.
Text by the poet "Picander" (Christian Friedrich Henrici, 1700-1764).
The arranger Adolf Berhard (1795-1866), a German music theorist, critic and pedagogue, was "one of the most influential theorists of the 19th century, Marx named and codified sonata form. ... [He] had become friends with the Mendelssohn family in 1826, and in 1829 he assisted Felix Mendelssohn with the important performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion." Sanna Pederson in Grove Music Online
The St. Matthew Passion, a sacred oratorio for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra with interspersed chorales and arias, sets chapters 26 and 27 of the Gospel of Matthew. Composed in 1727, it was first performed in Berlin on 11 March 1829 with Mendelssohn conducting. This highly important performance heralded a reawakening of interest in Bach's music.
"It was due to Mendelssohn's unwavering enthusiasm that in 1829, a century after the Leipzig performance, the St. Matthew Passion was produced under his leadership in Berlin. This was a dazzling revelation to the musical world since - apart from infrequent performances of the motets - hardly any of Bach's great vocal works had been heard before. In the following years, as a direct result of the performance, the two Passions and, in 1845, the Mass in B minor were published." Geiringer: Bach, p. 351.
"The St. Matthew Passion is by any standard a remarkable composition - one of the most complex of all Bach's vocal works and for many the most profound. Mendelssohn considered it to be 'the greatest of Christian works', and many other superlatives have continued to be accorded this emotionally powerful music, which almost every choral group aspires to perform." Boyd, ed.: J.S. Bach, p. 430.
A masterpiece of sacred music. (Inventory #: 40258)
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