Customer Reviews

1812 Overture, Marche Slave and Francesca da Rimini in Full Score

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(4)

 

 

This score is one of the rare problem scores in the Dover series. They have basically photo-offset from the old Soviet editions. In March Slave, the Russians edited out the Czarist hym material that Tchaikovsky quotes in the piece and substituted innocuous filler, with a footnote to an appendix containing the original material. The Doverites, not understanding what they were doing, leave in the footnote (which is in Russian, naturally) but omit the appendix. Anyone trying to use the score of March Slave with a recording or to prepare a performance will discover this problem. (Note - for a correct score of March Slave, get the Eulenberg pocket score and compare....)

The editorial board at Dover must have been unaware of the notorious Soviet editions of Tchaikovsky's "Marche Slav" and "1812 Overture." Since both works quoted the old Czarist national anthem "God Save the Czar" - two verboten subjects in one title - the offending tune was deliberately altered to appease the commissars who oversaw the State Music Publishing house. Dover has a long track record of issuing fairly decent quality reprints of classical scores at a very reasonable price. I hope that they will substitute the original Jurgenson/D. Rather editions of these works, who left the melody unmolested, when this volume comes up for reprint.

As an avid musician, I have taken great pains, through research, time and money, to purchase high quality scores with which to hone my craft. Unfortunately, this score has fallen into the category of a true lemon. The other readers' comments regarding Marche Slave and the 1812 Overture are substantial and on target.

Specifically, the 1812 Overture's is rife with errors; the most glaring of which is the incorrect melody in the low-brass and low strings during the finale section in combination with the alteration of the most recognizable theme in the rest of the orchestra. I have great respect for Dover and their editions. I own dozens of them. This one, however, receives two thumbs down from me because of the gross errors. If you would like a quality edition of this work, try the Eulenberg edition as suggested by the another reader. Happy Hunting!

Please do not take this the wrong way, but I found some repeats of the final section of this opus and when the cannons go off on the cds that I have listened to, while I follow a long with the orchestra, Dover repeated many measures. So, these past two days I had to figure out the right places to mark when the cannons go off. I had to mark X's where it is repeated. The cannon notation in this score is off, so I fixed that in my edition. It is still a good study guide if you want to become a conductor, when I graduate out of college I would like to become a conductor of a major city symphony orchestra.

This peice has an excellent start, and hints on the main theme of the work throughout. Towards the end of the work, the cannons add a contrast to the main melody by hitting on the "and"s of the beat. I get goosebumps everytime I hear this theme. My thoughts: A variation to this work would be great!