Review: Orchestral Masterpieces under the Microscope by Jonathan Del Mar

Published by Boydell & Brewer, 2023 – 714 pages

I came across this book while researching errata in Wagner’s Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, curious about the inconsistencies I was finding between editions, orchestral parts, and printed scores. That led me to Jonathan Del Mar’s Orchestral Masterpieces under the Microscope—and what I found was more than a collection of corrections. It’s an essential resource for conductors and performers who want to engage with repertoire not just interpretively, but textually.

As a conductor working with both student and professional ensembles, I often return to the foundational question: What is actually in the score, and what is tradition? Jonathan Del Mar’s Orchestral Masterpieces under the Microscope offers one of the most direct and useful tools I’ve encountered to address that gap between text and performance.

Del Mar, best known for his Bärenreiter editions of Beethoven, turns his editorial lens toward a wide swath of the orchestral canon—from Bartók to Tchaikovsky, Elgar to Sibelius. This is not a history book, nor a narrative survey of repertoire. It is a working document: a series of concise, detailed reports outlining textual discrepancies, misprints, and notational puzzles in major orchestral works, based on his meticulous study of autographs, first editions, and early performance parts.

A Conductor’s Toolkit

For those of us preparing scores, this book does what few others do: it meets us at the conductor’s desk, where practical decisions must be made about slurs, articulations, and dynamics that differ across sources. Del Mar doesn’t offer fixed solutions—he offers evidence, comparisons, and commentary, trusting the reader to weigh the information with musical judgment. In doing so, he models a kind of editorial transparency that feels both empowering and necessary.

The entries on Beethoven are especially illuminating. His discussion of the cello solo in Symphony No. 8’s trio, long played by the full section but originally marked “solo,” reframes how we think about texture and intent. Similar insights appear throughout his remarks on Brahms, Mahler, and Elgar, among many others.

From the Archive to the Rehearsal

What I found most valuable was Del Mar’s insistence on looking beyond the published score. His advocacy for early orchestral parts as authoritative sources—often containing markings that correct the printed score—is a reminder of how much editorial work gets lost between rehearsal and print. For conductors working with rental materials, legacy editions, or parts full of markings from previous ensembles, this perspective is essential.

The book’s format is dense, and it does assume familiarity with editorial shorthand and source types. But for anyone trained in or open to source-based interpretation, it offers a level of depth that few resources match.

Living with the Score

Del Mar’s voice is at once scholarly and pragmatic. He respects the complexities of the source material, but he also knows what it means to prepare a piece for performance under time constraints, with less-than-ideal materials. In that sense, the book feels like a companion: something to consult, question, and return to.

It is not just for those editing scores or leading orchestras—it’s for any musician who wants to read more deeply into what the composer might have intended, and what may have gotten lost along the way.

Learn more about the book at:
https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781783277322/orchestral-masterpieces-under-the-microscope

Review copy provided by Boydell & Brewer.
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