G.MAHLER. EARLY MANUSCRIPT OF SYMPHONY NO.2, THE ARRANGEMENT FOR TWO PIANOS BY HERMANN BEHN, 1895

the Stichvorlage of all five movements, written by Behn in black ink for Piano I and Piano II on three systems per page, each of four staves, with many revised passages notated on small slips of paper pasted into the score, three bars blacked out at the start of the third movement, copious annotations, including lists of the orchestration and notes for the engraver, marked by the publisher in blue crayon and pencil, and by the engravers ("98978"), rehearsal numbers in red ink, dated at the end of each movement ("26 Juli 1895", "13 August 1895", 26.August 1895", "26.August 1895", "9.August 1895" and "13.November 1895"); 132 pages, 4to (29.5 x 22cm), including title and remarks, 12-stave light-green paper, rehearsal numbers in red crayon, grey reversed calf, blind-stamped border, black-gilt label to cover ("Symphonie in C-moll von Gustav Mahler...Hermann Behn"), Tinnendorf, July-November 1895, together with, on a bifolium of different 12-stave paper (loosely inserted), Behn's manuscript of the fourth movement ("Urlicht") with accompaniment of only piano, 3 pages,

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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This is the earliest surviving copy of Mahler's Second Symphony, after the autograph manuscript (completed December 1894), and the first to be published. The Hamburg pianist-composer and arranger Hermann Behn (1857-1927) wrote it without Mahler's knowledge, although the composer later gave it his full approval and most probably played drafts of it with him during 1895.  That Behn worked directly from Mahler's autograph score is shown by his pencil annotations to the last movement (the manuscript sold at Sotheby's on 29 November 2016, lot 36), marking out the page-breaks (and even system-breaks) for the present transcription.   This manuscript dates from after the early performance of the first three movements in Berlin in March 1895, but before the full premiere in December.  It was published before the 1897 full score, as Symphonie in C-moll No.2 ... Für zwei Claviere zu vier Händen gesetzt von Hermann Behn, (Leipzig: Hofmeister, [1896]).