6 Concertos Op.3 H.73-78 Band 3a

Geminiani’s Op. 3 Concertos have come down to us in no fewer than four different versions. The first is the one published by Walsh in 1732. The Amsterdam music publisher Michel-Charles Le Cène published an unchanged reprint of the Walsh edition that was available early 1733. This was followed by a re-issue corrected by Geminiani himself that, in all probability, was published later the same year. Rather than actual corrections, however, this re-issue supplies additional dynamics, ornamentation, and articulation. This is the second version. In the present edition, the additions of the 1733 Le Cène re-issue are incorporated into the 1732 score. Since this combines the first and the second versions, the dating 1732-1733 will be attached to it. In 1751, John Johnson published a new edition of Op. 3, also revised by Geminiani. Johnson’s edition, however, is based not on the 1733 Le Cène publication but on the 1732 Walsh version. Again, there are many additional dynamics, ornamentation, and articulation; but there are also some note changes. This is the third version. The quantity and character of the additions and alterations are such that they cannot be incorporated in a score of the 1732-1733 versions. For that reason, a separate score of the 1751 version is provided in the present edition where it is designated the ‘Revised Version’. Finally, there is the ‘Second Edition’ of the Op. 3 Concertos, in all probability first published in Paris in 1755. Unfortunately, no extant copy with a Paris imprint is known. What we do have is a second issue, published in London in 1757, in two formats: score and separate parts. Here, the concertos have been recomposed rather than just revised. These recompositions constitute the fourth version. The Second Edition will be edited in Volume 3B of the present series.