Breitkopf & Hartel editions (etc)
Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 6:17 am
As an amateur pianist and collector of the forgotten romantic repertoire, over the years, I have spent a great deal time tracking down the missing works of Xaver Scharwenka (and others), mostly published in the 1880s. I was "over-the-moon" when I finally discovered your site and managed to download his A minor Polonaise, Op.7. A week later, I went back for the Ballade, Op.8 and the Polish Rhapsody, Op.76, only to discover you'd been shut down by some misguided people who think they own the Universe. OK, they may have exclusive rights to R.Strauss, Stockhausen, etc (to which they are very welcome), but, CUMMON!!!, give us back those scores which have been unavailable (unfashionable?) for 130 years or more. Maybe, if Universal were to reprint some of this lost repertoire, I could understand their childish tantrums, but, as things stand, they are simply sending mountains of good music to the gas chamber.