OK, this may not be on par with finding the score of an unknown Beethoven symphony sewn into the lining of an 18th-Century Tyrolian overcoat, but I think this is kind of cool.
I have on my shelf what seems to be an original copy of the first full score of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, published in 1921 by Édition Russe de Musique. (Prior to that, only the four-hand piano version had been published.) I found it around 1990 in a Budapest antikvárium, a used book store.
The title page of this score bears the handwritten name “Ferencsik” and the year 1929, leading me to the conclusion that in 1929 it was a possession of the great Hungarian conductor János Ferencsik, who led the Hungarian National Philharmonic from the Fifties into the Eighties.
Click the thumbnail below to see where Ferencsik wrote his name on the cover page.
Not only that, there’s an indication that markings in red were supplied by Stravinsky himself. In the image below, you can see where Ferencsik (presumably) wrote “Piros: Straw.”, indicating that the red markings were from Stravinsky. (“Piros” = “Red” in Hungarian)
I’m no expert on the various revisions of The Rite of Spring, nor do I have handy a copy of a more recent printing, so I have no idea if there’s any great significance to these markings. I’m assuming not, but here are a few examples:
Dynamics in the strings at rehearsal 32
Apparently rethinking the time signature notation at rehearsal 39
Rebeaming the trombones accordingly, also at rehearsal 39
