Beethoven String Quartet Leads Musical Manuscripts Sale at Christie's

Christie’s' Classic Week Valuable Books and Manuscripts December 11 live auction in London will feature an important collection of music manuscripts from Beethoven, Wagner, Stravinsky, Verdi, Puccini, Ravel, Strauss, Mendelssohn and Debussy. 

Leading the selection of musical lots from the collection established by Helmut Nanz in the 1980s and 1990s is Ludwig van Beethoven’s autograph sketch leaf for the string quartet in C, op. 59 no. 3. This is densely written, with many cancellations and emendations, for one of Beethoven’s celebrated middle period quartets (estimate £100,000 – £150,000).

Other highlights include:

• a signed autograph manuscript by Richard Wagner featuring the first poetic draft of the libretto for Tannhäuser (estimate: £80,000-120,000)
• a significant fragment of the original compositional draft for Richard Wagner's conclusion of the concert overture Polonia (estimate £25,000 - £35,000)
• a signed autograph manuscript by Igor Stravinsky for the reworking of The Firebird for small orchestra (estimate: £70,000 - £100,000)
• an autograph music manuscript of the aria E la vita un mar d'affanni by Giuseppe Verdi, an album leaf dated in Rome two days after the premiere of I due Foscari (estimate: £25,000 - £35,000)
• a leaf from the working manuscript of Richard Strauss’s final opera, Capriccio (estimate £3,000 - £5,000)