KROMMER, Franz 1759-1831

[Op. 19]. Trois Quatuors Pour deux Violons, Alto, et Basse... Œuvre [6] Prix 9 livres. [Parts]

Paris: Pleyel [PN 400], [1803-1806].

Folio. Disbound. Violino 1o: 1f. (title), [1] (blank), 2-19, [i] (20) pp.; Violino 2o: [1] (title), 2-19, [i] (blank) pp.; Viola: 17, [i] (blank) pp.; Violoncello: 17, [i] (blank) pp. Engraved. Publisher's facsimile signature handstamp to foot of title of Violino primo part. Publisher's address: "Rue Neuve des Petits Champs, No. 1286, vis-à-vis la Trésorerie Nati;" another price, "20f 1/2," printed to lower right corner of title.

Numbers "22, "23," and "24" in manuscript in ink as a header to all pages, to each of the three quartets respectively. Caption title in the same hand and ink, "Krommer opa. 6," to first page of Viola and Violoncello parts; "oeuvre 6" to head of first page of Viola part; measure numbers in pencil in a modern hand throughout; "Or op. 20" added in pencil to all opus numbers, possibly in the same hand.

Some soiling; some leaves frayed at outer edge; some show-through to manuscript annotations in ink; impression occasionally light. A very good, wide-margined copy overall.

A later edition, later issue. RISM K2619 (3 copies only in the U.S., at Cornell, Oberlin College, and the University of California, Berkeley, not distinguishing among issues). The plate number points to a publication date of 1801 or 1802, but the publisher's address was current only from 1803 to 1806 (see Devriès-Lesure I, pp. 128-29).

This set of three quartets was also published as op. 19 (Vienna: T. Mollo & Co. [PN 158], March 1801; RISM K2639) and as op. 20 (Offenbach: J. André [PN 1608], ca. 1802; RISM K2640). Grove Music Online and MGG2 use the opus number 19, assuming that Mollo's edition was the first.

"Krommer was one of the most successful of the many influential Czech composers in Vienna at the turn of the 18th century. His creative output comprises over 300 works... Krommer’s reputation is attested by the rapid spread of his compositions in reprints and arrangements by German, Danish, French, English, Italian and American publishers... He was regarded (with Haydn) as the leading composer of string quartets, and as a serious rival of Beethoven... His modes of expression extend from the galant style of the earlier 18th century to Romanticism." Othmar Wessely in Grove Music Online.

Item #25733

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