Beethoven: Five Rare Books for Collectors

Highlights from J & J Lubrano Music Antiquarians' latest catalogue Beethoven: First and Early Editions Paintings, Busts, and Statues include: 

* The Moonlight Sonata (Magonza, Carlo Zulehner, ca. 1802)

An early edition of one of Beethoven's most iconic pieces, published in the same year as the first edition. 

* The Eroica Variations (Paris, au Magasin de Musique Dirigé Par M. Mrs. Cherubini, 1803/1804)

First French edition, published approximately one year after the first edition by Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig.

* Fidelio (Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel, 1827)

Beethoven’s only opera. Third edition of the third (1814) version of the work. 

* Broadside playbill for a performance in Wiesbaden at the Königliche Schauspiele on September 29, 1878

The evening included the 175th performance of Beethoven's orchestral overture Zur Weihe des Hauses, Albert Lortzing's Der Waffenschmied, and the first performance of Lortzing's Vorspiel to Der Waffenschmied. Named cast includes Frauleins v. Ernest and Muzell, and Herrs Jaskewitz, Rudolph, and Seihr.

* Für Elise (Stuttgart, J.G. Gotta, 1867)

Contains first printings of Für Elise and other works. Composed on April 27, 1810, it was first published in the present volume after having been discovered 40 years after the composer's death in 1827.