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JOHANNES BRAHMS
Alto
Rhapsody.
Opus 53. For Contralto, Men’s
Chorus, and Orchestra.
Text from Goethe’s
Harzreise im Winter. Introduction by Walter Frisch. A Facsimile Edition
from the Composer’s
Autograph Manuscript in the Music Division of The New York Public
Library.
 opening page
| New York, 1983. 24 x 30 cm,
29, 44 pp. Beautiful
3-color facsimile of the 1869 autograph fair
copy (the only surviving manuscript source for the complete work),
together with 2 leaves of
sketches in the possession of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde,
Vienna. The Alto Rhapsody is
one of Brahms’ most moving and successful works composed at a time when
he seemed to
have felt embittered and angry
over the engagement and marriage of Julie Schumann (the second eldest
daugther of the
Schumanns') to Count Radicati di Marmorito of Turin. According to
Brahms “it is the best
thing I have yet done... and if worthy altos are not immediately eager
to sing it, there are
nevertheless enough people who do need this kind of prayer”. This
manuscript apparently was
not looked at for the publication of the Sämtliche Werke in 1926.
Linen, with autograph title and signature embossed on cover. $60 |
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