Destroyed music

[Petrushka]

Didn't Eduard Strauss burn some of his brother Johann's scores out of jealousy? Roehre may know more but I think many of Johann's works had to be reconstructed. Sorry to sound vague but this is just from memory. Not sure if any were permanently lost.

[Roehre]

Roehre

Vaughan Williams' 2nd Norfolk Rhapsody has been recorded by Chandos as few years ago, only one page needed to be reconstructed.

I've got that recording, but how did that page got lost, and how much of the 3rd Rhapsody has gone lost?

[Chris Newman]

Didn't Eduard Strauss burn some of his brother Johann's scores out of jealousy? Roehre may know more but I think many of Johann's works had to be reconstructed. Sorry to sound vague but this is just from memory. Not sure if any were permanently lost.

Hi Petrushka, I have not heard this story before but I have noticed that even the Vienna Phil regularly use Gordon Jacob's rich and exciting orchestration of the Radetsky March. bws, Chris

[Suffolkcoastal]

I believe it is the first page that is lost from the RVW manuscript. I'm not certain what happened to the 3rd Rhapsody, it seems to have been 'conveniently lost' by the composer, so perhaps RVW destroyed it I know he was very dissatisfied with it. There of course a number of earlier RVW orchestral scores surviving many of which have never been performed or performed only once, but have never been recorded.

[Freddie Campbell]

...Then there is quite a lot of fine Music never Played- Howells's Chamber Music,eg...

[Suffolkcoastal]

Very true, there are literally thousands of fine works that never get performed or broadcast, either because the composer isn't well known, or because the composer is much better known for other works that tend to overshadow the rest of their output. Fortunately many of these have been recorded, but there are still many gaps to be filled by recording companies.

Going back to missing works, I wonder if many publishing companies and libraries do know the full extent of their stock, I bet there are still works waiting to be discovered out there.

[subcontrabass]

Tonight on Radio 3 we were promised every note that Mozart wrote? Nothing gone missing?

[Roehre]

Going back to missing works, I wonder if many publishing companies and libraries do know the full extent of their stock, I bet there are still works waiting to be discovered out there.

Especially libraries many times haven't a clue what's in their vaults, especially when they acquired libraries from former monasteries or small duchies, counties [in Germany and in Italy e.g.].
But even the inventories of more recent acquired collections, sometimes from composers who died very recently -say the last decade or so- don't always cover the contents completely.
Especially libraries and archives where fragments of works/scores/autographs are located, simply often haven't a clue where other parts of that work might be located. The reconstruction of Liszt's 3rd pianoconcerto just by putting the pieces together is an example of what might be gathering dust.

[Suffolkcoastal]

There was a case in 2007 when I discoeverd a printed score of William Schuman's 2nd Symphony in the Henry Watson Memorial Library in Manchester. The work was emphatically withdrawn by the composer after a couple of performances in the late 1930's and was never supposed to have been published. As I have a rare private off-air recording I was able to recognise the score as being the 2nd symphony and not a mislabelled copy of something else. The Library didn't have a clue about the significance of this as it was probably a unique printed copy, so I alerted the Schuman Trust in the US and the family gave permission for the score to remain at Manchester, as to how the Library managed to have this in their possession is a total mystery. The copyist looks to have been the same as was used to copy the scores of Roy Harris in the late 30's and early 40's. The Library also had a first edition score of Samuel Barber's 2nd symphony, I was under the impression that all of these had been destroyed at Barber's request in the early 1960's when he withdrew the work, new scores only being printed when a set of parts was discovered and the work was resurrected in the 1980's as the outstanding work it is.

So its amazing what can be discovered even in a large public library!

[MrGongGong]

So its amazing what can be discovered even in a large public library!

indeed , nice to see that some libraries still have books (what on earth would anyone want with those old things ??) in them
my local (Small City) library has now "lost" more or less all of its music collection which used to be fantastic and had some really rare items that they had no idea of how much they were worth..............