Magnificent collection of 44 original photographs individually signed by a major composer of the 19th and 20th centuries, representing a sweeping chronicle of the art form’s evolution from Romantic grandeur to Modernist innovation. The photographs, which are presented in various finishes across pictorial formats typical of the period, range in size from 3.25 x 5 to 9.5 x 12.75, with all of the composers signing in ink or fountain pen. The majority write warm inscriptions, while a handful add short handwritten musical quotations. Anchoring the collection are four titans of the operatic and symphonic tradition: Russian master Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, German visionary Richard Wagner, and Italian maestros Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini. Other highlights include eminent composers such as Maurice Ravel, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Benjamin Britten, Dmitri Shostakovich, Richard Strauss, and Johann Strauss II, who adds three bars of music from his beloved 1874 operetta ‘Die Fledermaus.'
The complete alphabetized list is as follows:
Béla Bartók, Ernest Bloch, Benjamin Britten, Max Bruch, Ferruccio Busoni, Alfredo Casella, Manuel de Falla, Vincent d'Indy, George Enescu, Gabriel Fauré, Alexander Glazunov, Percy Grainger, Hans Werner Henze, Paul Hindemith, Arthur Honegger, Jacques Ibert, Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, Leoš Janáček, Aram Khachaturian, Zoltán Kodály, Witold Lutosławski, Frank Martin, Pietro Mascagni, Darius Milhaud, Michael Tippett, Giacomo Puccini, Francis Poulenc, Maurice Ravel, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Ottorino Respighi, Guy Ropartz, Anton Rubinstein, Camille Saint-Saëns, Florent Schmitt, Dmitri Shostakovich, Igor Stravinsky, Johann Strauss II, Richard Strauss, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Giuseppe Verdi, Heitor Villa-Lobos, William Walton, Richard Wagner, and Alexander von Zemlinsky. In overall fine condition.
