IMSLP Forums

I have the old three-volume Kalmus set of miniature scores of "30 Celebrated String Quartets" of Haydn. As far as I can tell, these were published in the mid 1940s. They are reprints of both the Eulenburg scores edited by Wilhelm Altmann and a set of Philharmonia scores, the latter of which seem to have been printed in the late 1920s and 1930s.

Op. 17, No. 5
Op. 20, No. 5
Op. 74, No. 3
Op. 76, No. 2
Op. 76, No. 3
Op. 76, No. 4
Op. 76, No. 5
Op. 77, No. 1

It's not difficult to tell the differences between the Eulenburg and Philharmonia scores. Philharmonia tends to use a Sans-Serif font for tempo markings and rehearsal numbers (which may have been provided by the editors; might they correspond to sets of parts published by Universal Edition?). Also, Philharmonia's measure numbers are below the staff and appear every 5 measures, unlike Eulenburg's which appear every 10 measures and are above the staff.

A more significant difference, though, is that Philharmonia's editors appear to have been less interventionist than Eulenburg's Altmann in "modernizing" notation; that is, changing grace notes to "regular" note values. And I suspect that there may be other differences as well, but I haven't done an extensive comparison (nor, have I checked, for example, the recent Henle or Peters editions).

The upshot is: if the Philharmonia represent better readings that the Eulenburgs, it would sure be nice to have these available through IMSLP!

musicologyman

It would be indeed. Since Kalmus reprinted them, there should be no problem with USA status, and it appears they would fall under the urtext rubric for Canada and EU even if the editor died less than 50 years ago.