Formerly in the manuscript collection of Stefan Zweig

Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich, Russian composer (1840-1893). "Fantaisie de Concert pour Piano, avec accompagnement d‘Orchestre par P. Tschaikowsky. Partition" [Concert Fantasia in G, Op. 56, for piano and orchestra].

€ 75,000.00

Highly appealing manuscript of the Concert Fantasia for piano and orchestra, Op. 56, formerly in the collection of Stefan Zweig: a secretarial copy prepared at the time of the work's composition, containing several autograph additions in Tchaikovsky's own hand. The manuscript was long considered by scholarship to be fully holograph; a more recent expert opinion by the musicologist Thomas Kohlhase of Cologne (included) proves its more complex genesis.

Tchaikovsky made several changes to the manuscript with his own pen: the first of these is on pp. 11/12, bars 36-39 of the first movement (three bars on p. 11 and the first bar of page 12, Violin I). Another correction is in the final four bars of the last page of music (p. 20), in the accolade of two staves of the horn voices I/II and III/IV (bars 59-62 of the first movement). In addition, there are a few autograph insertions on the first and last page of music as well as on p. 12, in each case indicating the instruments more precisely.

While some questions regarding the incompleteness of the manuscript and its purpose remain unresolved, "there can be virtually no doubt that this well-preserved item, even if largely a copy by a different hand, was created in Tchaikovsky's sphere and was reviewed and, in some places, revised by the composer himself. There are various indications that it was penned during Tchaikovsky's first tour abroad in 1887/88, either in Paris in the spring of 1888 or - more likely - in Leipzig and the end of 1887 or early in 1888 [...] Thus, this manuscript, although it comprises only a part of the entire work and can no longer be flatly considered 'holograph', remains a valuable and notable document that complements the complete original sources of the Concert Fantasia Op. 56, not only for collectors of old, attractive and interesting musical manuscripts, but also for the musicologist investigating the tradition and reception of music as well as philological and more specifically editorial aspects“ (expert opinion, p. 9).