I have just received my copy of the new edition of the Froberger Strasbourg
MS from Carus-Verlag Stuttgart, ordered through their website at
www.carus-verlag.com . If anyone else is thinking of ordering it thusly I
would mention that one can order it on line but they ask for credit card
details to be faxed, and the price of DM128 is a lot cheaper than dollar
price of $78!

Anyway I thought the list might be interested in first impressions. The
title is
VINGT ET UNE SUITES POUR CLAVECIN DE JOHANN JACOB FROBERGER ET D'AUTRES
AUTEURS and it has been edited by Rudolph Rasch.
It comes from the Strasbourg 1675 MS in the Dresden Sächsiche
Landesbibliothek (Ms.1-T-595)

It contains 13 harpsichord suites definitely by Froberger and a 14th
probably by him, and a further 7 items by various composers including a
suite by Michael Bulyowsky who was responsible for the transcriptions. The
introduction is in French, German and English, as is the Apparat critique,
though the critical commentary on the individual pieces is only in German.
The whole production - printing, layout, paper etc - is of a very high
standard.

Obviously I have not been able to carry out a very detailed examination, but
comparing it to Adler - I do not have Howard Schott's Heugel edition - there
are many textual differences as well as different layouts of individual
bars. The latter in the suites which I play seem to me to be good
improvements. There are also some movements which are additions to Adler
Suite 28, and this MS is the only source for these.[Incidentally there is a
bad mistake in the introduction that took me some time to work out, in that
Adler Suite 28 is said to be the same as Suite VII in the current volume
when it should be Suite VI]. There are also some titles to known movements
which were not attached to them before.

Having now seen the new edition it is clear that the idiosyncrasies which I
have remarked on in Aline Zylberajch's recording on the Assai label -
playing the Colmar Ruckers - in fact reflect the textual differences in the
Strasbourg MS. And very interesting they are! I do hope that the third
Bärenreiter volume of its Froberger edition will have taken account of this
MS when it appears later this year.

Conclusion - an excellent addition to Froberger editions which should
certainly be considered by anyone interested in this repertory.

Chris Cartwright