Table Of ContentOrchestral Masterpieces under the Microscope
Orchestral Masterpieces
under the Microscope
Jonathan Del Mar
the boydell press
© Jonathan Del Mar 2023
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First published 2023
The Boydell Press, Woodbridge
ISBN 978 1 78327 732 2 hardback
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Contents
Preface ix
Editorial Conventions xvi
Bartók Piano Concerto No.1 1
Bartók Violin Concerto No.2 3
Bartók Dance Suite 6
Beethoven Symphonies: some supplementary remarks 9
Beethoven Overture Leonore No.2 14
Beethoven Overture Leonore No.3 22
Beethoven Overture King Stephen 35
Berlioz Symphonie fantastique 37
Berlioz Harold in Italy 41
Berlioz Overtures 47
Bloch Schelomo: Hebraic Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra 49
Brahms Four Symphonies 53
Brahms Piano Concerto No.1 in D minor, op.15 63
Brahms Violin Concerto in D, op.77 74
Brahms Hungarian Dances: a brief guide 77
Bruch Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor, op.26 79
Busoni Piano Concerto, op.39 94
Debussy Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune 97
Dvořák Scherzo capriccioso, op.66 121
Dvořák Symphonic Variations, op.78 125
Dvořák Romance for Violin and Orchestra, op.11 129
Dvořák Serenade for Strings in E, op.22 131
vi Contents
Elgar Variations on an Original Theme (‘Enigma’), op.36 152
Elgar Concert-Overture Froissart 166
Elgar Concert-Overture Cockaigne 178
Elgar Concert-Overture In the South (Alassio) 186
Elgar Sea Pictures 192
Elgar Serenade for Strings in E minor, op.20 234
Fauré Fantaisie for Flute, orch. Louis Aubert 238
Franck Symphony in D minor 242
Haydn Symphonies with High Horns 252
Haydn Symphony No.100 in G (‘Military’) 260
Haydn Symphony No.104 in D (‘London’) 265
Liszt Piano Concerto No.1 in E flat 271
Liszt Piano Concerto No.2 in A 276
Mahler Symphony No.2 in C minor 278
Martinů Rhapsody-Concerto for Viola and Orchestra 282
Mendelssohn Symphony No.3 in A minor, op.56 (‘Scottish’) 285
Mendelssohn Symphony No.4 in A, op.90 (‘Italian’) 294
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, op.64 302
Mendelssohn Overture The Hebrides (‘Fingal’s Cave’), op.26 305
Mozart Piano Concertos 308
Mussorgsky,
orch. Ravel Pictures from an Exhibition 317
Nielsen Sinfonia espansiva (Symphony No.3) 332
Prokofiev Classical Symphony (Symphony No.1, op.25) 339
Prokofiev Peter and the Wolf, op.67 352
Contents vii
Rachmaninov Symphony No.2 in E minor, op.27 355
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor, op.18 369
Ravel Piano Concerto 371
Ravel La Valse 375
Ravel Le Tombeau de Couperin 379
Ravel Pavane pour une infante défunte 383
Respighi Fontane di Roma 385
Rimsky-Korsakov Symphonic Suite: Scheherazade, op.35 387
Rimsky-Korsakov Capriccio espagnol, op.34 390
Rossini Overture William Tell 394
Saint-Saëns Symphony No.3 in C minor, op.78 398
Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No.1 in A minor, op.33 404
Schubert Overture Die Zauberharfe, D.644 (‘Rosamunde’) 416
Schumann Symphony No.4 in D minor, op.120 421
Schumann Overture, Scherzo and Finale, op.52 426
Schumann Cello Concerto in A minor, op.129 429
Schumann Overture Genoveva, op.81 435
Shostakovich Cello Concerto No.1 in E flat, op.107 436
Sibelius Symphony No.2 in D, op.43 440
Sibelius Symphony No.3 in C, op.52 449
Sibelius Symphony No.4 in A minor, op.63 476
Sibelius Symphony No.5 in E flat, op.82 483
Sibelius Symphony No.6 in D minor, op.104 488
Sibelius Symphony No.7 in C, op.105 513
Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor, op.47 535
Sibelius Tapiola, op.112 538
Smetana Má Vlast: 2. Vltava 540
Smetana Má Vlast: 3. Šárka 547
viii Contents
Strauss Ein Heldenleben, op.40 552
Strauss Horn Concerto No.1 in E flat, op.11 556
Strauss Oboe Concerto 579
Strauss Metamorphosen: Study for 23 Solo Strings 593
Tchaikovsky Symphony No.2 in C minor, op.17 597
Tchaikovsky Symphony No.3 in D, op.29 606
Tchaikovsky Symphony No.4 in F minor, op.36 610
Tchaikovsky Symphony No.5 in E minor, op.64 615
Tchaikovsky Symphony No.6 in B minor, op.74, ‘Pathétique’ 620
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1 in B flat minor, op.23 633
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D, op.35 644
Tchaikovsky Fantasy-Overture after Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet 651
Tippett Symphony No.2 in C 658
Vaughan Williams A London Symphony (Symphony No.2) 666
Vaughan Williams Pastoral Symphony (Symphony No.3) 672
Vaughan Williams Tuba Concerto 679
Wagner Prelude Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg 683
Walton Cello Concerto 686
Weber Overture Der Beherrscher der Geister 689
Weber Overture Der Freischütz 696
Weber Overture Oberon 707
Bibliography 713
Preface
The greater part of my working life has been devoted to a series of Urtext editions
for the publisher Bärenreiter, starting with the Beethoven symphonies and con-
tinuing with most of the other principal works of Beethoven – except Fidelio which
(I always maintained) would require an entire lifetime on its own. For certain specific
reasons we also delved occasionally into the byways of Elgar and Dvořák.
But what about all the other composers? There is hardly a work in the orchestral
repertoire that can truly be said to be free of misprints, inconsistencies between score
and parts, or other textual problems. Like my father, conductor Norman Del Mar,
before me, I made notes in my score of whatever work I was conducting, of apparent
contradictions, errors and puzzles of all descriptions. Hence these textual reports,
which range from (at their most primitive) merely a list of known misprints, to (at
the other end of the scale) almost Urtext editions in their own right. Many compos-
ers’ autographs have been published in facsimile, and first editions are often available
to view online in both score and parts, so the relevant sources may be openly avail-
able to consult and compare.
Beethoven has been an especially rewarding composer to work with. Painstakingly
he worked at his canvas, honing and perfecting it down to the last minute detail, and
once he had reached the result he was seeking he had it published and then left it
alone. Further revisions post-publication are rare; a notorious example is the Fifth
Symphony, where he added a bar in no fewer than five places in the first movement,
causing the poor publishers to spoil their beautiful plates by having to roughly insert
the bar in every part wherever it was required. But at least the decision is clear; this
extra bar is, without doubt (even though it nowhere survives in Beethoven’s hand),
the last will of the composer.
Other composers were neither so decisive, nor so exact, nor so reverent towards
their earlier works. Mendelssohn agonised about his ‘Italian’ Symphony to the extent
that he completely revised the second, third and fourth movements, yet the verdict
on this revision can only be one of regret, for there is not a bar that is improved, only
weakened – as his sister Fanny was quick to chide him. Chopin wrote several dif-
ferent autograph manuscripts of the same piece, always with small (or not so small)
differences, then published one or more of them, so that no such thing as a single
definitive version exists. Dvořák marked the exposition of his Sixth Symphony to be
ix
