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Although
the orchestral score and presumed set of parts for Draeseke’s
Violin Concerto have disappeared, a violin and piano reduction is housed in the music
manuscript collection of the Sächsische Landesbibliothek - Staats- und Universitäts-bibliothek Dresden under
the catalog entry MUS 7099-B-501.
There are two folios: the first
contains movements 2 and 3 (Adagio and Finale) and the second,
the first movement (Allegro appassionato). This unusual juxtaposition
of folios may account for the catalog entry’s parenthetical
note of "unvollständig" (incomplete) and could
lead one to the conclusion that there is music missing from this
reduction. However, the concerto is 100% intact and all of the pages of this reduction are in perfect
numbered sequence: 27 for the first movement, 6 for the Adagio
and 15 for the finale and there are no measures missing or crossed
out. The folios were received directly from the estate of Frida Draeseke and
the catalog entry, in consideration of that, will evidently
not be changed. It does not take a particularly well-trained
eye to note the discrepancy in the spelling of Violinconcert (instead of the more normal German:
Violinkonzert) on the folio containing movements 2 and 3, and
Violinconzert on
folio 2 with the first movement. The handwriting seems different
between the two folios, though there is no existing correspondence
indicating that Draeseke paid copyists for the violin and piano
reduction.
Some 125 years after its composition, Draeseke's Violin Concerto had it's premiere in this piano reduction at the occasion of the 23rd Conference of the International Draeseke Society in Meiningen, June 2009.
The IDG and IDS/NA thank Alan Howe for obtaining a copy of the SLUB manuscript and the Library for their permission to reproduce the manuscript on the Draeseke website.
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