Add MS 60617

An autograph score, in pencil, signed by Britten on the title page (f. 2), and dated 'Feb. 23 - March 3 1971 / Aldeburgh' (f. 12v).

The work is dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich: 'For Slava' (f. 2). Rostropovich gave the first performance (21 December 1974) at Snape Maltings Concert Hall.

The volume comprises:

• a note (typescript) from Britten ('B.B. / Summer, 1971') concerning the three Russian folk songs on which the work is based (f. 1);
• title page, with Britten's signature and his dedication to Mstislav Rostropovich (f. 2);
• revised passage: 'Alternative to 1st 7 bars' (f. 2v);
• the same revised passage of music in black ink (copyist hand), dated at the head of the folio: 'Jan. 74' (f. 3);
• a note in pencil (f. 4), made by the Britten-Pears Library, highlighting two revised passages (f. 3 and f. 5);
• the second revised passage, also the opening bars (f. 5);
• I 'Lento (introduzione)' (ff. 6-7);
• II 'Tranquillo' (f. 7-7v);
• III 'Con moto (canto)' (f. 7v);
• IV 'Lento (barcarola)' (ff. 7v-8);
• V 'Allegretto (dialogo)' (f. 8-8v);
• VI 'Andante expressivo (fuga)' (f. 9-9v);
• VII 'Fantastico (recitativo)' (f. 9v);
• VIII 'Presto (moto perpetuo)' (f. 10);
• IX 'Lento solenne (passacaglia)', beginning at the end of f. 9v (repeated and struck-through at the end of f. 10) and continuing ff. 11-12v;
• draft passages (f. 13).

On f. 12, there are four indications of mood or expression that appear in both conventional Italian and in the Russian alphabet (capitals). Paul Banks (ed.), Benjamin Britten: A Catalogue of the Published Works (1999) notes (p. 143) that when Rostropovich visited Aldeburgh in January 1974 (which matches the date at the head of the revised passage on f. 3), he played the work to the composer and edited the published score.