Add MS 64931-64942

THE 'LONDON' SYMPHONIES: autograph full scores of Symphonies nos. 95 and 96 by Joseph Haydn, with copies of the full scores of nos. 93, 94 and 97-104; 1791, and before Aug. 1795. The copies, in two hands, were evidently made directly from the autograph scores, and so before Haydn left London on 15 Aug. 1795. The complete set belonged first to Johann Peter Salomon, then passed to his musical executor, William Ayrton, from whom it was purchased by the Philharmonic Society of London in 1847. During Ayrton's ownership the scores were bound into four volumes, following the traditional ordering of the twelve symphonies. The volume containing the two autograph scores was placed on loan in the British Museum in 1914, and the remaining three volumes added to the loan in 1981 (former B.L. Loan 4. 133-144). See Arthur Searle, 'The Royal Philharmonic Society scores of Haydn's 'London' Symphonies', in The Haydn Yearbook, XIV (1984), pp. 173-186. Purchased from the Royal Philharmonic Society, 15 Jan. 1988, with the aid of grants from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Mercers' Company, the Baring Foundation, the Worshipful Company of Musicians and an anonymous donor.

Paper. Twelve scores, separately numbered and foliated, in four volumes. All 240 x 290mm. Full bindings of vellum, that of the second volume re-made in the twentieth century.