Sellout? Schott gets rid of its historic archive
mainThe music publishers Schott, struggling in tough market, has got rid of 240 years of history in a fire-sale.
Scott, based in Mainz since 1770, served Beethoven, Wagner and other giants, kept their contracts, manuscripts portraits and correspondence.
The archive has been bought for an undisclosed sum by a consortium led by the Bavarian State Library. It will be split between Munich and Berlin.
“The archive has been bought … by a consortium led by the Bavarian State Library.”
Could have been worse.
My experience with Schott exposed them as incompetent people.
That’s good news! Not only the archive has been saved from greedy investors but it will be way easier to explore in the hear future.
And about time, too. Finally a chance for Orff scholars to delve into the records 1935-45?
Great news. The BSB in Munich has made a huge amount of musical treasures available online, in high-quality digital scans. Look forward to seeing the Schott collection in due course.
This is a poor choice of a word, “sellout”. The fact that the archive will move to public institutions is a blessing, which means that the material will be available to the public. In the past, Schott auctioned off several Wagner manuscripts, including the autograph libretto to “Tristan”. I thank the consortium for acquiring the archive, when Schott could have sold it off piece by piece.