![]() In the case of the manuscript sold at Sotheby’s in 2003 for £2.1m ($3.5m), the symphony is by Beethoven, but the manuscript was written out by a copyist and corrected by the composer. If the composer is great enough and the work important enough - and they don’t get much greater than Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony - then the manuscript does not even have to be entirely autograph. This manuscript is still owned by the private purchaser who bought it 1987. The previous auction record for a post-medieval manuscript was held by a Mozart volume, containing no fewer than nine symphonies in his hand, which made £2.5m ($4.7m) way back in 1987. This is arguably the most popular symphony by one of the world’s most popular symphonists. SOLD FOR £4,546,250 IN 2016.įor this reason the highest price for any post-medieval manuscript at Sotheby’s, meaning one enshrining a masterpiece (rather than being itself a masterpiece of calligraphy, painting or illumination), is held by a complete musical work: Mahler's Second Symphony, which realised a price of £4.5m ($5.6m) on 29 November 2016. If the manuscript of a substantial work by a great composer comes to the market then the price tends to break records. ![]() However, music has the added advantage of being an “international language”. The availability of autograph literary manuscripts, say by Jane Austen, George Eliot or Goethe, is much more restricted than with music only the French market compares with music. In the rarefied world of manuscripts, Music has a special place because such autographs can still be found, in a way that is seldom matched in literature. It is remarkable that original manuscripts written by JS Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, the three greatest figures in Western Music, are still available at auction. ESTIMATE: £150,000-200,000, FROM FINE AUTOGRAPH MUSIC: THE PROPERTY OF HELMUT NANZ AND FAMILY, 22 MAY.Īutograph manuscripts written by the world’s greatest composers are highly sought-after because of who wrote them. LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN, REMARKABLE AUTOGRAPH SKETCHLEAF FOR THE STRING QUARTET IN C, OP.59 NO.3, THE SECOND MOVEMENT.
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