Zweig MS 115

Overture; 1853, 1860. Full score. Written in ink on systems of 16 and 18 staves. In the hand of Adam Bauer, on 16 staves (ff. 1-27) and Carl Mehner, on 18 staves (ff. 28-34). The first section (ff. 1-27) extensively annotated and corrected throughout in red ink by Wagner, with his instructions to the engraver at foot of f. 18v, and at the end of f. 27v the note ‘Von hier an der neue Schluss. RW.’ The manuscript to that point is part of the score prepared by Bauer for performance at a concert in Zurich in 1853 (see Wagner Werk-Verzeichnis, p. 231). The revised ending of 1860 (see Zweig MS 116) is added by Mehner; the additional staves in this section are occupied by the harp. Cue letters added in pencil. With engraver’s annotation of page numbers in pencil on ff. 1-27 and in red/brown crayon on ff. 28-34; the numbers are those of the pagination of the score of the overture published by C. F. Meser (Hermann Müller), Dresden.

The portfolio in which this manuscript is kept does not provide a guide to its past ownership. Zweig MS 115 was not among the manuscripts from the collection of Arthur F. Hill, of the violin making family, sold at Sotheby’s, London, on 16, 17 July 1947. A number of items at this sale were purchased by Haas, and the portfolio with Hill’s bookplate in which Zweig MS 115 is now kept seems likely to have originally belonged with lot 231 in the sale, a portrait of ‘Master’ Pio Cianchettini with associated manuscripts.