About this edition
Composed in 1885 at the urging of Mily Balakirev and inspired by Byron's brooding dramatic poem, Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony stands as one of the composer's most ambitious and emotionally lacerating orchestral works. Cast in four movements that trace Manfred's tormented wanderings in the Alps, his vision of the lost Astarte, and his ultimate destruction, the symphony deploys an enlarged orchestra with extraordinary coloristic invention — including the famous concluding apparition scored with organ and harmonium. Though Tchaikovsky himself harbored doubts about the work in later years, modern conductors and audiences have come to regard it as a peak of late-Romantic programmatic symphonism, ranking in scope and intensity alongside the numbered symphonies.
This volume reproduces the first edition full score issued by P. Jurgenson in Moscow in 1886, bearing plate number 6762. Jurgenson was Tchaikovsky's principal publisher and closest professional ally, and the firm's early Tchaikovsky editions — prepared with the composer's direct involvement and proofreading — remain primary source documents for performance and scholarship. Because Manfred was published almost immediately after its composition and premiere, this first edition preserves the text as Tchaikovsky himself sanctioned it, before later editorial accretions.
About this edition:
- Full orchestral score (conductor's score), complete in one volume
- Page size: 8.5 x 11 inches, printed for clear reading at the podium or desk
- Faithfully reproduced from a public domain historical source
- Published by Purple 4R Publishing
By bringing this historic Jurgenson first edition back into print, we hope to put an authoritative score of one of Tchaikovsky's most extraordinary symphonies into the hands of conductors, orchestral players, students, and scholars who want to engage with the work in its original published form. We're glad you're here.
