Editions

Except for Op 5, all Medtner's works up to Op 15 were originally published by P Jurgenson. Some of these have been reprinted by Rob. Forberg, whose classical catalogue is now owned by BMG Music Publishing. Op 5 was published by Belaieff, for a long time represented by Edition Peters, but currently by Schotts. Works between Op 16 and Op 32 were published by Édition Russe de Musique (Russischer Musikverlag), whose European operation was purchased by Boosey & Hawkes in 1947. Opp 33-37 were first published by the Soviet State Publishing House, following the nationalisation of the Russian musical press in 1918. Opp 34-35 were republished in the west by Édition Russe de Musique, and Opp 36-37 by Zimmermann. Op 33 is currently published by Boosey & Hawkes as a reprint of the Soviet edition. Thereafter most of Medtner's works were published by Zimmermann, who have kept all except Op 36, Op 41 no 2 and Op 46 in print. The exceptions are Opp 56-57, published by Novello (now part of Music Sales Group), Op 58 by Augener (now Stainer & Bell), and Op 61 by Belaieff (Schotts). Tyutchev's Midday, later incorporated into Op 61, was first published in a song anthology by Schirmer, New York in 1946.

Later engravings of Jurgenson and Édition Russe de Musique scores, in Germany and France respectively, often contain revisions to the original, generally in the form of additional markings, whereas those republished by Soviet State Music Publishers prior to 1959 usually do not.

The most authoritative complete edition, used by most performers today, is the Medtner Collected Edition (Sobranie Sochinenii) published in 12 volumes by Moscow State Music Publishers in 1959-1963, hereafter referred to as the 1959 Collected Edition. Edited by Sofronitsky and Goldenweiser with the aid of original manuscripts provided by Anna Medtner, it corrects errors in earlier editions and incorporates many changes made by the composer during his lifetime. It is not totally free of errors; an errata was published for the first two volumes, though a few have been missed. The entire contents are available on IMSLP, along with the original edition for some works. The Dover edition of the Piano Sonatas and Fairy Tales is based on the Collected Edition apart from (strangely) the Op 30 sonata.

Moscow "Muzyka" republished all Medtner works from the Collected Edition in later years, often more than once, and re-engraved some of them. They currently offer Opp 38, 39 and 41 which can be obtained from Ruslania. Many earlier Muzyka publications are downloadable from IMSLP and other sites.

Christoph Flamm has produced critical editions of Op 39, Op 49 and Op 51 for Zimmermann, and Zen-On has published a critical edition of Op 38. A few other editions appeared in countries after copyright had lapsed; those seen by the author have reproduced previous editions.

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