Why, oh why doesn't Breitkopf and Härtel have a US distributor?!

You'll find as this blog goes on that I'm all about showin' the love to Breitkopf and Härtel . I start jonesing for each new Orchestra Urtext score from the time they announce them; I can usually hold off buying until they print the study score size (lag time of a year or more) but I've let myself be lured into buying a few in full size, such as the Beethoven Leonore #3 that came out last year. The Juilliard Bookstore carries a few of the Breitkopf urtext study scores (the Schumann Symphonies, Sibelius 2nd, some of the Beethoven Symphonies); Theodore Front seems to carry a decent stock and is generally a good shop to check out online. But for this impatient, instant-gratification oriented boy, it's very frustrating to have to order online from B&H and wait for shipment from Germany (which ain't cheap) if one of those shops doesn't happen to have music in stock. So if anyone out there has the combination of adequate capital and inadequate business sense to enter the print music distribution business, have at it!

Eulenburg Audio + Score series -- some great critical/urtext editions for cheap!

When I saw that Eulenburg/Schott had begun publishing a 50 volume, glossy-covered, study (not pocket) score-sized editions of standard orchestral rep with companion CDs inside the back cover, I thought it was a clever way to repackage their existing library in a more marketable form but, with my usual snobby reflexes was doubtful I'd want to be seen with a score that came packaged with its own CD.  I was pleasantly surprised to discover that, while many of the volumes preserved the comfortably familiar 10%-too-much-ink-on-the-plate orthography of the old school pocket scores, there are a number that present very affordable and readable reproductions of the best available urtext/critical editions published by Schott and Breitkopf and Härtel.

Particularly noteworthy:

Dvorak Symphony No. 8 in the new (2004) edition by Klaus Döge that incorporates tempo markings and other information from Dvorak's conducting score that was also used as an engraver's copy. I unfortunately didn't discover this until after I'd spent $70+ on the full size score (the consolation being that the full score has the detailed critical report at the end)

Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 in Thomas Kohlhase's 1993 edition from the new collected works published by Schott (it doesn't appear that this particular collected works has made any progress past this volume and an album of piano pieces, unfortunately).

Other volumes, such as Dvorak Symphony No. 9 appear to have had corrections applied to the old plates; the score of Mozart Symphony No. 35 (Haffner) is newly engraved, though the critical provenance is unclear.

Overall, the series is worth checking out. And if you happen to make it to a good book or record shop in China, you'll find that this series and a fair number of the Eulenburg pocket score are available for very low prices -- 38 RMB for the Dvorak 8, which is around $6 US.

Update, 9/5/09: Had a chance to look at a few volumes from this series at the Juilliard Bookstore. A large number are re-engraved and list Richard Clarke (presumably not the counter-terrorism expert) as editor but offer no other provenance or list of sources, etc. Probably not a bad alternative to Dover reprints, given their improved readability and free CD, but not necessarily any more reliable than the older Eulenburgs.