Once Verdi had become Italy's preeminent opera composer, he created only a few compositions for instrumental soloists, most notably the String Quartet in E Minor. He originally wanted to keep the string quartet--which was first performed in his hotel for a few friends--private, but eventually he allowed its publication and it soon became well known all over Europe and the United States. Though several recordings are available and the piece is regularly featured in performances, all of them use later editions that do not live up to Verdi's intentions as recorded in his autograph score. This...

This seminal study of Giuseppe Verdi's German-language reception provides important new perspectives on German musical culture and nationalism from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. Kreuzer argues that the concept of Germany's musical supremacy, so dear to its nationalist cause, was continually challenged by the popularity of Italian opera, a genre increasingly epitomised by Verdi. The book traces the many facets of this Italian-German opposition in the context of intense historical developments from German unification in 1871 to the end of World War II and beyond. Drawing on an...