Opus numbers and unpublished works?

[JimL]

So, can anybody confirm the opus number of Dvorak's Bells of Zlonice?  I still say it was either Op. 1 or 2.

According to the main Czech Dvorak site (http://www.antonin-dvorak.cz/uvod/) the first five opus numbers with their Burghauser equivalents are:

Op.1        String Quintet No.1 in A minor (1861) [B7]
Op.2        String Quartet No.1 in A major (1862) [B8] - opus number also allocated to Songs (1881) [B123-124]
Op.3        Evening Songs (1876-1881) [B61, which also incorporates Opp.9 (1879-1880) and 31 (1882)]
Op.4        Symphony No.2 in B flat  (1865) [B12]
Op.5        Piano Quintet No.1 in A major (1872) [B28]

Symphony No.1 is listed as B9 without opus number (1865).  Clear as a bell, then.

According to the fifth edition of Grove (ed. Blom, 1954, volume II, p.840), the Bells of Zlonice symphony was 'originally' Op.3. Given that the symphony was unpublished and considered lost until 1923, this is perhaps a little odd. The 1961 supplementary volume to the fifth edition contains myriad corrections to entries in Dvorak's work-list but does not include any amendment regarding the first symphony (Supplementary Volume to the Fifth Edition [volume X], pp.114-116).

Op.3 is also cited on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._1_%28Dvo%C5%99%C3%A1k%29 and seems to be in use on the websites of several record companies, including Decca (http://www.deccaclassics.com/cat/single?sort=newest_rec&PRODUCT_NR=4300462&javascript=1&per_page=10&COMP_ID=DVOAN&ALBUM_TYPE=CD&start=10&presentation=list) and DG (http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/cat/single?sort=newest_rec&PRODUCT_NR=4631582&javascript=1&per_page=10&COMP_ID=DVOAN&start=10&presentation=list), although my booklet from the 1991 release of the Kertesz set makes no mention of it!

Op. 3, then.  You'd actually have to get a look at the original album sleeve of the Kertesz LP.  By 1991 whatever the current designation/dropping of the opus number is may have already been in place.  All I know is it had an early opus number just prior to the B-flat, and Op. 3 sounds just about right.

[John H White]

I can remember a time when Dvorak's symphonies were numbered from 1 to 5, No5 being the New World Symphony. Around 1960, as far as I can recall, Supraphon  issued a complete cycle of all Dvorak's symphonies including the more recently discovered early ones, on a set of LPs

[eschiss1]

I can remember a time when Dvorak's symphonies were numbered from 1 to 5, No5 being the New World Symphony. Around 1960, as far as I can recall, Supraphon  issued a complete cycle of all Dvorak's symphonies including the more recently discovered early ones, on a set of LPs

Conducted by Vaclav Neumann? Apparently it was at least partially reissued on Artia in the US around that time (that year may be exact rather than an approximation even). Even a little later, around 1962 (perhaps as late as 1982 if I read right) recordings were still issued of individual Dvorak symphonies with the older 3-1-2-4-5 numberings (Bernstein on Columbia in '62 it seems.)
Eric

[JimL]

That obsolete numbering (starting with the D Major, Op. 60) as #1, had the F Major Symphony numbered as 3, Op. 76 (its republication number).  As I recall, Dvorak had been using another publisher (B&H?) when Brahms introduced him to Simrock.  I'm not sure if the F Major Symphony had been published previously as Op. 24, or if that number was simply assigned by Dvorak, but he thought highly enough of the work to include it in his canon, unlike the first 4.

[Albion]

Gareth, something struck me as odd regarding the new Dutton recording - Pandora hasn't got an opus number. Holbrooke was perhaps one of the most zealous cataloguers of his own music and continually reassigned opus numbers to certain works, but this brief ballet hasn't got one and isn't mentioned in Lowe's book (although that was published in 1920, the same year as the score was written). The lists of Holbrooke's works that I've seen only contain works to which an opus number is ascribed, so this brief ballet doesn't raise a mention. I'd describe Pandora as not insignificant - are there any other Holbrooke scores without opus numbers?