Shostakovich edition: concerto reductions and vocal scores
Following the completion of the set of 15 full scores of Shostakovich’s symphonies in a new edition, Boosey & Hawkes and Sikorski have released scores and reductions of the composer’s concertos and vocal scores of Symphony No.13 ‘Babi Yar’ and Symphony No.14.
The 50th anniversary of Shostakovich’s death in 2025 heralded a major new publishing collaboration between the editorial teams of Boosey & Hawkes and Sikorski to produce a new Shostakovich edition including full scores of all 15 symphonies. With the set of symphony publications completed, attention has turned to extending the edition with scores and reductions of the string concertos and vocal scores incorporating the soloist and choral elements of Symphonies Nos.13 and 14.
Sikorski became a sister company of Boosey & Hawkes in 2019 when it joined the Concord group, seeing its operation combining with Boosey & Hawkes’s German office in Berlin. Both publishers have a long history of specialising in Russian and Soviet era music and have joined their expertise together to produce the new Shostakovich edition. All scores and the related orchestral parts have been newly computer typeset, and the orchestral parts are also compatible for performance use with scores in ‘The New Collected Works of Dmitri Shostakovich’.
Shostakovich concerto publications recently released include new full scores and reductions for soloist and piano of Violin Concerto No.1 and Cello Concerto No.1. Cello Concerto No.2 is to be released similarly in the coming months. The vocal score of Symphony No.13 includes the bass solo and male chorus parts, together with a piano reduction of the orchestral accompaniment. The voices sing texts by Yevtushenko telling of the massacre of more than 33,000 Jewish men, women and children on the outskirts of Kyiv in 1941. The vocal score of Symphony No.14 includes the soprano and bass solo parts in this death-laden cycle of songs setting texts by Lorca, Apollinaire, Küchelbecker and Rilke, with a piano reduction of the strings and percussion accompaniment. A further addition to the Shostakovich edition is a full score of the composer’s Suite No.2 for Jazz Orchestra also known as the Suite for Variety Orchestra and containing the ever-popular Second Waltz music.
Violin Concerto No.1 (1947-48)
Full score 979-0-003-03100-2
Reduction for violin and piano 979-0-003-03114-9
Cello Concerto No.1 (1959)
Full score 979-0-003-03115-6
Reduction for cello and orchestra 979-0-003-03136-1
Symphony No.13 ‘Babi Yar’ (1962)
Vocal score 979-0-003-02854-5
Symphony No.14 (1969)
Vocal score 979-0-003-03099-9
Suite No.2 for Jazz Orchestra (1950s)
Full score 979-0-003-04395-1
> View the full Shostakovich symphony series
New Prokofieff edition
Beyond the Shostakovich anniversary, the publishing focus has been progressively shifting towards Prokofieff, again with Boosey & Hawkes and Sikorski collaborating on a new edition. Following the recent award-winning Romeo and Juliet full score, incorporating decades of corrections reviewed for the publication by Vladimir Jurowski, full scores of the three orchestral suites from Prokofieff’s ballet are due to be published in coming months. A revised and corrected performing edition of the complete Cinderella ballet is also nearing completion.
Work is well underway on a complete set of full scores of the seven Prokofieff symphonies, starting with Symphony No.5 released this month, to be followed in coming months by Symphonies Nos.1-3, and Symphony No. 4 appearing initially in its second version op.112, dating from 1947. Next year will bring Symphonies Nos.6 and 7 and the first version of Symphony No.4 op.44 to complete the set. All Prokofieff scores in this series and the related orchestral parts are being newly computer typeset.