Sellout? Schott gets rid of its historic archive

Sellout? Schott gets rid of its historic archive

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norman lebrecht

November 25, 2014

The 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.

 

Beethoven-9-Symphonie-Missa-Solemnis-autorisation-manuscrite

Comments

  • Simon S. says:

    “The archive has been bought … by a consortium led by the Bavarian State Library.”

    Could have been worse.

  • John Borstlap says:

    My experience with Schott exposed them as incompetent people.

  • Kind says:

    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.

  • Graham Lack says:

    And about time, too. Finally a chance for Orff scholars to delve into the records 1935-45?

  • Pedro says:

    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.

  • Evan Baker says:

    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.

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