The Wagner Years

In the first decades, Schott felt committed to the French tradition popular at that time.  The catalogue therefore included names such as Adolphe Adam and Daniel Auber as well as Gaetano Donizetti, Ignaz Pleyel and Gioachino Rossini.  With the works of Franz Liszt and Peter Cornelius, Schott indicated a stronger interest in the German repertoire. In 1859 Franz Schott (1811-1874), the grandson of Bernhard Schott, succeeded in winning the collaboration of Richard Wagner, and Schott published Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, the complete Ring des Nibelungen and Parsifal.  The connection with Wagner proved extremely expensive for the publishing house: on 21 October 1862 Franz Schott wrote to Wagner: ’Anyway, no music publisher can possibly satisfy your needs, this can only be done by an enormously rich banker or a prince who has got millions ...’  Wagner did indeed find his generous prince in the person of Ludwig II, the young King of Bavaria.

Illustration: Parsifal Announcement 
Handbill announcing the World Premiere of "Parsifal" at the Bühnenfestspielhauses Bayreuth, 26 July 1882. (Autograph)