Beschreibung:

Rachmaninov, Sergei THE AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT OF THE SECOND SYMPHONY IN E MINOR, OP.27 the substantially complete full orchestral score, containing many differences from later sources, notated in black ink on up to twenty-four staves per page, an extensively-worked manuscript, with numerous deletions, corrections, erasures and annotations throughout, including a few bars of new music, alterations to the main themes and many revisions to the orchestration; altered versions added by the composer on hand-drawn staves in the lower margins; the Stichvorlage, marked up by the composer for the copyist and publisher in red crayon and pencil (with details of the repeated sections, rehearsal numbers and metronome markings), the engraver’s markings in pencil 320 pages (the manuscript beginning at p.5), large folio, c.35 x 26cms, each movement paginated separately by the composer, 24-stave paper, mainly by Jurgenson of Moscow (No.29 (1)); the final 42 pages on Breitkopf and Härtel paper (14A); each movement on separate sets of gatherings; marked for the printer in another hand, including the plate no.A.8899.G and engraver's job number (7603), the gatherings (mainly 6 bifolia each) carefully mounted on guards, largely preserving the original structure, modern half calf, raised bands, gilt titles to spine [Dresden, July 1907-1908], lacking 5 leaves, including the first 2 and most of the last leaf (these 3 leaves made up in printed facsimile), and 2 leaves in the last movement, some loss to lower corners of 2 leaves (1st movement, pp.65-68), short tears repaired on pp.91/92 of the first movement and pp.17/18 & pp.59-61 of the last), careful repairs to wear at margins (e.g. the start of the last movement), some damp-staining to lower margins and corners in the first & last movements, and a few stains elsewhere (e.g. p.46 in the first movement etc.) The Second Symphony is Rachmaninov's greatest symphony. This is the only surviving autograph manuscript of the work. It is also the largest autograph of any of Rachmaninov’s major orchestral works. It was untraced for many decades from just after the premiere and has never been used by modern scholarship. Autograph manuscripts of major symphonies, central to the concert repertory, are very rarely offered for sale. This primary source contains a wealth of unpublished and new information, documenting, as it does, the final stages of the symphony’s creation. Apart from the corrected page-proofs now in Moscow, which provide little information about the genesis of the work, there are no other surviving manuscripts that give us any insight into the genesis and evolution of Rachmaninov’s symphony. No sketches, short-score draft, copyist’s manuscripts or proofs seem to have survived: this seems to be the sole and most important source for the Second Symphony. Rachmaninov composed the symphony for the subscription concerts run and conducted by his friend and cousin Alexander Siloti (1863-1945), in St Petersburg in 1908. He wrote the short score (which is lost) in Dresden between October 1906 and April 1907, and completed the orchestration there by mid-January 1908. The première took place in St Petersburg on 26 January 1908; the rehearsals were directed by Siloti, but the first performance was conducted by Rachmaninov himself. While it is possible that the composer used this manuscript then, there are very few conductor-like markings in the score. Perhaps he conducted from memory or from a copyist’s score. What seems highly likely is that Rachmaninov revised the orchestration in the light of these performances, so that his original orchestration is preserved only in this score. The Second is Rachmaninov’s greatest Symphony: neither of his other two symphonies has gained such a prominent place in the repertoire. It follows firmly in the symphonic tradition of Tchaikovsky, though on an even larger scale. It has a Russian-chant like motto theme, heard at the outset, which returns in triumph at the end. It is a