6 December 2023, 6 p.m., Austrian Music Society [Österreichische Gesellschaft für Musik], Hanuschgasse 3, 1010 Vienna

The opera Wozzeck has been published as a printed full score on two previous occasions: in 1926, one year after the work was premiered in Berlin, the score was published by Universal Edition. The first edition received extensive corrections and reworking as a result of the initial performances, and these changes should have been included in a planned new edition of the opera. However, it was not until the 1950s that the edition by Hans Erich Apostel was published with the final corrections and amendments left by the composer.

This current edition endeavours not only to produce notation that is based on all the available sources, but also to go to the greatest possible lengths to reconstruct the visual peculiarities in the layout of the autograph score. In addition, the ossia variants that were omitted in the vocal parts of Apostel’s edition, as well as other, later additions from Berg’s personal working copy of the printed full score, have been included in this edition.The Wozzeck autograph score has its own fascinating peculiarities, not least due to several notational qualities that can be understood as a concrete visualization of proceedings in the music drama. These include the continuation of staves for the voices and instruments even though there is no notation, in a full score where “empty staves” were not a standard feature.

One peculiarity in the layout of the full score is seen in Act II: indenting a chamber orchestra positioned centrally in the large orchestra. This not only makes it easier to recognize the instruments visually, but also directly illustrates the conflict between Wozzeck and Marie. Using the colour red for the stage music in Acts II and III visualizes a difference that can be seen not just as colourful “decoration”, but also as emphasis of its diegetic function.