In order to perform music of earlier centuries authentically, performers need to be familiar with the performance conventions of the day. A sensational discovery alters our view of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.

After his death, Johann Joseph Rösler was almost completely forgotten. But his Piano Concerto in E flat deserves a revival. The new edition from Bärenreiter Praha will contribute to this.

The master concerts associated with the Heidenheim Opera Festival present a very special event this autumn: the well-known German actress Katharina Thalbach will play the (spoken) title role in Georg Anton Benda’s famous melodrama “Medea”, accompanied by the Cappella Aquileia under the direction of Marcus Bosch. The concert on 27 October in the Congress Zentrum Heidenheim, repeated on 28 October in Fürth, is at the same time the first performance using the critical new edition published by Bärenreiter. Benda’s “Medea” will be heard in the previously unknown late Mannheim version of 1784, which is in many respects more effective. The edition has been edited for the first time by Jörg Krämer for the series “OPERA – Spectrum of European Musical Theatre in Separate Editions.” (Picture: Eugène Delacroix, Medea kills her children (1862), Louvre Paris)

Amongst Handel’s sacred works, the “Te Deum” for James Brydges at Cannons is one of the least well-known. Now its publication in the Complete Edition enables authentic performances to be given once more.

Debussy’s frequently-performed orchestral works need a reliable Urtext edition, one which also incorporates performing traditions. The editions by Douglas Woodfull-Harris for Bärenreiter fulfil this need.

In 1958 Jean Barraqué composed music for a project for the ‘Theatre of the Absurd’ which never made it to the stage. 60 years later it is now finally receiving its première in Vienna.