Missa solemnis in D minor Op.123 (Facsimile, hardback)

Beethoven Missa solemnis in D minor Op.123 (Facsimile, hardback)

Facsimile of the autograph score held in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preussischer Kulturbesitz
With a Commentary by Hans-Joachim Hinrichsen and Martina Rebmann
Documenta musicologica II/51
340 pp. of facsimile and 29 pp. of Commentary (Eng/Ger);
Half-leather binding

Beethoven struggled with the Missa solemnis for years, searching for a highly personal way to deal with the words and musical traditions of the Mass Ordinary.  In the end he produced a work that leaves no listeners cold - some are puzzled but a great many are deeply moved.
 
The autograph reflects how intensively he worked on the Missa solemnis and what a difficult work process it was.  Apart from the many corrections there are several torn-out pages.  Sometimes Beethoven could only proceed by stitching replacement pages into the manuscript.

Beethoven authority Hans-Joachim Hinrichsen unveils the stages of its genesis in an understandable and rather detective-like manner.  In addition Martina Rebmann explains how this and other autographs were gradually acquired for the Beethoven collection in the Berlin Staatsbibliothek.

Reproduced in high-quality four-colour printing, the facsimile replicates the page stubs and fold-out pages, thereby emulating the feel of the original source.  Judicious inscriptions with movement headings, continuous pagination, scholarly foliation and measure numbers help readers to find their way more easily in the manuscript.
The facsimile pages have a rather large, almost square format (39 cm x 44.5 cm) due to the various formats of the autograph pages.  The cover is a little larger so that the entire edition has the format (40 cm x 45 cm).