Later Symphonies (Nos. 35-41) in Full Score Review

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(More customer reviews)As a musicology student on a budget, I've acquired quite a few Dover scores over the last years. They may be slightly antiquated in many cases, but there's simply no one who can match their prices.

This edition is from Breitkopf & Härtel's late 19th century edition of Mozart's complete works, which means that a lot of the archaic notation practices that existed in Mozart's time have been updated, allowing for a very easy to read product (The only C clef in use is in the viola). The font used is a bit heavy for my tastes, but by no means difficult to read. The print is of top notch quality; Dover Publication can be a little hit and miss when it comes to this, but this book has no notable printing flaws. The paper is of a high enough quality to withstand heavy handed rubber use.

The only minus I can think of right away is that there are no numbered bars, and that the instrumental organization of a movement is only mentioned on the first page of the movement; you have to keep track yourself after that. The first point is slightly annoying, the second one I don't really care about. These two points combined, however, force me to remove one star. Of course, this doesn't mean that it's not a top notch product in it's own right, or that there are better options out there, but there are some minor points that could have been improved without much work.

Since the instruments are only spelled out at the first page of a movement, this means that you won't get a reduced score; all instruments are written out all the time, even if they don't play anything. This makes the book slightly longer, but in my opinion, it actually makes the score a bit easier to read. Besides, it makes sure that you always have plenty of free space to write on, as opposed to some reduced scores that tends to get very cramped (you can find a couple of exceptions: pages where three separate lines of music have been added rather than two. You can probably count the instances of this on your fingers, though). A big point for anyone interested in analysis.

Bottom line: For this price, there's no better edition. It's a shame that Dover didn't take some few measures to improve it, because my fifth star could have been had for a very small price...

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Product Description:
This affordable collection includes Mozart's seven final symphonies (Nos. 35-41) including the great composer's greatest orchestral work-the last 3 symphonies. Reprinted from the authoritative and acclaimed Breitkopf & Härtel edition.

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