Jenufa - Karl Böhm's Signed Copy with Extensive Autograph Notes

Wien-Leipzig: Universal-Edition. 1917. Partitur score to Janacek's opera Jenufa, owned and used by the important Austrian conductor. 423 pp. Universal No. 6001. Copy no. 72 of only 100 copies issued. Full score with text in Czech and German. Signed by Böhm on both endpapers and with his extensive directions and notes in blue and red pencil on nearly every page of the score. Also included are 7 pp. of notes in Böhm's hand, listing corrections to each instrumental part of the piece. Pages 35–45 have been sewn together at the right edge in white thread to indicate a large cut to the music; pp. 75–78 have likewise been paper-clipped together to indicate a cut. Original printed boards with some toning, edge wear and light stains; modern black cloth spine. Overall very good. 10.5 x 13.5 inches (27 x 34 cm).  Simeone A 4, pp.22-3

The first of Janáček's operas in which his distinctive voice can clearly be heard, Jenufa or Jejií pastorkyna ("Her Stepdaughter") is a grim story of infanticide and redemption. Like the play by Gabriela Preissová on which it was based, it is known for its unsentimental realism. The opera was premiered in 1904 but fell largely out of the repertoire in the 1920's to 1940's. Karl Böhm was the first to direct it after this hiatus, in 1950 at the Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires, with Tiana Lemnitz and Margaret Klose.

The son of a lawyer, Karl Böhm studied law and earned a doctorate in this subject before entering the music conservatory in his home town of Graz, Austria. He later enrolled at the Vienna Conservatory, where he studied under Eusebius Mandyczewski, a friend of Johannes Brahms. He made his conducting debut in 1917, and subsequently held posts in Darmstadt, Hamburg, and Dresden. In 1938 Böhm took part in the Salzburg Festival for the first time, conducting Don Giovanni, and thereafter he became a permanent guest conductor. He secured a top post at the Vienna State Opera in 1943, eventually becoming music director. After he had completed a two-year post-war denazification ban, Böhm led Don Giovanni at La Scala, Milan (1948) and gave a guest performance in Paris with the Vienna State Opera company (1949). From 1950 to 1953 he directed the German season at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. (17058)

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Signed Document/Item

Printed Music

Classical Music

Opera

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