Gioachino Rossini

Until 1829 Rossini was an extraordinarily prolific composer of operas, comic, serious and semi-serious, in Italian and French, as well as of a great deal of vocal and instrumental music. He composed sacred music, vocal treatises and cantatas. Then, for many different reasons, he wrote very little music for more than twenty-five years, except some songs and the „Stabat Mater“. Only after he finally left Italy for Paris in 1855 he became productive again. Between 1857 and 1868 a fresh group of masterpieces were composed; the so-called Péchés de vieillesse (Sins of Old Age) which is a collection of chamber music for voice(s) and piano and the „Petite Messe Solennelle“.

Producing a critical edition of Rossini’s music is complex. The operas were often written in multiple versions, all of which need to be edited. Sources for his non-operatic music which are to be found all over the world, must be identified, catalogued, and evaluated if we are to edit his music in a way that will serve the needs of both scholars and performers.

Until 2015, the Works of Gioachino Rossini were published in collaboration with the Center for Italian Opera Studies (CIAO) at the University of Chicago, under the editorial direction of Philip Gossett. Five editions, some of them in several volumes, have been published to date, together with the corresponding Critical Commentaries.

Bärenreiter is now continuing the work on this series under the general editorship of Daniela Macchione and is resuming the publication planning for the volumes originally envisaged. The series will, however, no longer be affiliated with the former CIAO, which no longer exists.