IMSLP Forums

There is some fine music in PDF here, as we all know. But I long for full scores of the symphonies of Louis Spohr. There's only one here. The rest of the listings are arrangements for different ensembles (and often only of a movement or two). This troubles me as I love his musical voice so deeply, why is this so???

It's quite simple, really: His symphonies are not widely known and no one has stepped forward to scan and submit them. As a consequence of their relative neglect, they are difficult to come by in many libraries.

Spohr's symphonies are indeed little-known. However, his violin concertos have all been recorded by Ulf Hoelscher and the Berlin Radio Symphony. What is curious, to my mind, where are the orchestral scores for these violin concertos? There are none on IMSLP. Who publishes the full scores or rents the orchestral parts today? How did the Berlin Radio record all 15? Posting the orchestral scores on IMSLP might bring these concertos back into the repertoire of other orchestras, in addition to the Berlin Radio.

Possibly the Spohr Gesellschaft (in Tutzing I think), which published new full-score editions of many of these works in the 1960s and on, I believe. They may rent the parts also, or that might be Edition Peters or somesuch for some of the concertos- would have to check... the posthumous(ly published) violin concertos especially I think were first published by them (in at least many cases?), which definitely affects the ability of IMSLP to host such things

Its not so much a mystery how the violin concertos could be recorded without a published score: The 19th century parts are mostly from the SBB, which may scan them in due course (not high priority, because these have been filmed on microfiche): And the "Rundfunkarchiv" in Berlin is full of custom manuscript scores and photocopied parts from diverse recording projects. Until now, this archive is not public access - lets hope this will change once their holdings have at least been catalogued.
Rundfunkarchiv combines holdings of RSO (now DSO) Berlin (RIAS and SFB Radio) and of the RSB (Berliner Rundfunk). ...Isn't it great, how we germans can confuse every english speaker with the differential use of the two synonyms "Rundfunk" and "Radio" for orchestras from former east and west!

For the symphonies, there have at least been some 19th century printed scores. Some of these (3,5,9) have been reprinted by Musikedition Höflich (2005-2006), and could be uploaded to imslp.

@Eric: Except for the 3rd published by Bärenreiter in 1957 I could not find other modern editions except for 3 scores (no parts) published by Garland in 1980 (3,4,7). No. 3 and 9 are available from Kalmus. Nothing by the International Spohr Society in Kassel. Did you think of the clarinet concertos??

hrm.
... actually, now that I delve more deeply, the first edition parts of violin concertos 2, 4 and 6 do seem to be at University Basel and other places... but the new Spohr edition, published by Schneider in Tutzing through the efforts of the Spohr-Gesellschaft in Kassel, is what I think I meant - and may be the first edition of some works (some of the WoO violin concertos also- also a harp trio e.g.) and the only findable edition of some others- I don't know. (Possibly the best edition, but that's not the question unfortunately, true, not a practicable one given the date of publication, again, unless Urtext concerns etc. help here which is a question...)
As to the symphonies, I seem to recall seeing an earlier of the 3rd symphony back in my college's library before the MPH edition. And my grad school library has a 1955 Barenreiter full score of the 1804 A major violin concerto, it would seem... (WoO12?) (also while on that subject a 223-page score - full score? the vocal score seems to be 106 pages - of the English version of his oratorio The Last Judgment, published 1880-odd...)

Thank you to one and all for your interesting replies.

His Symphonies have been recorded at least twice in (almost) complete sets. The best, in my humble view are those by the Swiss-Italian Orchestra; sadly this set misses a couple of the nine for some strange reason (I did purchase these on iTunes). Also - there have been some quite fine Czech/Slavic recordings of the symphonies.

He wrote a particularly fine symphony called THE CONSECRATION OF HARMONY, which is an amazing work ... full of bird song in one of the movements. Endlessly delightful to me. Also his concertante for Harp, Violin and Orchestra is very fetching. This has, remarkably, been recorded at least twice and it was presented here where I live by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra a while back (in the last 5 years). Both solos by the concert master and the orchestra's principal harp. This work is amazing, and delicious. I really think the Clarinet Concertos are the least interesting of his orchestral works. But that's just my humble opinion.

Again, thanks and blessings to those (especially Jim) who replied.

And his operas too - which are entirely forgotten

Some of them yes or almost so, true. Several have been recorded (Faust, Der Alchymist, Jessonda, Der Berggeist, for example), others have received productions recently (Pietro von Abano in Leeds in 2009; Der Berggeist also in 2009, modern premiere in 2009 in Warsaw, recorded (by Radiowa Agencja Fonograficzna Polskie Radio S.A.) in the same year). Others I've missed I'm sure. Only excerpts, variations, etc. having to do with Alruna, die Prüfung and some others so far.