J.S. Bach. First edition of the vocal score of the "St. Matthew Passion", 1830

Johann Sebastian Bach

Grosse Passionsmusik nach dem Evangelium Matthaei von Johann Sebastian Bach. Vollständiger Klavierauszug von Adolph Bernhard Marx. Seiner Königl. Hoheit dem Kronprinzen von Preussen in tiefster Ehrfurcht gewidmet vom Verleger. Preis der Partitur: R:18. Preis des Klavierausz. R:7 1/2 [vocal score], Berlin: In der Schlesinger’schen Buch und Musikhandlung, Unter den Linden No.34, 1830

FIRST EDITION OF THE VOCAL SCORE OF THE ST. MATTHEW PASSION, BWV 244, 190 pages, large oblong folio (25 x 33cm), engraved throughout, plate number 1571, with subscribers’ list, publisher's stamps to title, inscribed by Albi Rosenthal and others on fly-leaves, ownership stamp ("Anton Kottenbach") and manuscript annotation to front free endpaper, half calf, nineteenth-century marbled boards, matching slipcase 

This edition of the St. Matthew Passion was issued around the time of publication of the full score, though possibly a little after. Among the subscribers, who are almost all German, is the composer Ludwig Spohr. As with the libretto (see following lot), copies of this first edition are uncommon.

This score was printed after Mendelssohn’s epoch-making performance of the work in Berlin on Good Friday 1829 (see catalogue note to following lot). At that time, the Singakademie possessed Bach’s own vocal and instrumental parts for the work which Carl Friedrich Zelter used to make a performing version, which Mendelssohn used. In fact, Mendelssohn heavily cut the work, removing arias and chorales and reducing the recitatives.

Adolph Bernhard Marx, who prepared this vocal score of Bach’s work, was the editor of the Berliner Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung and was, at this time, a friend of the young Mendelssohn. His relationship with Zelter, his former teacher, was much more stormy, breaking down completely in 1827. His edition of the St. Matthew Passion, which according to Fanny Mendelssohn was to be imminently published in April 1828, must have been prepared independently of Zelter’s work. In the event, it did not appear until 1830.

LITERATURE:

Hirsch 1136; RISM B 436; Hoboken Bach, no.27, pp.12-13

PROVENANCE:

Anton Kottenbach; Otto Haas