Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum I. Berkovich: Variations on a Paganini Theme

Hello,

While desperately looking for the original score of this piece, I ran into a thread on The Classical Piano Forum that mentions it. I have a photocopy of a photocopy from decades ago, made from the original my Russian teacher had. Everyone else I found in the US so far are in the same boat as their students lost the originals. Now, one of my students is not allowed into a state competition because we can't provide an original score - yet many played from photocopies in other competitions! It doesn't matter that the music is out of print, has been published over 50 years ago and is therefore in the public domain - these people are just heck bent on not allowing a photocopy!

So, I searched everywhere, including contacting music stores and publishers in Russia, teachers of students who performed it that I found to date ... nobody has an original any more. Let's just say I looked all over the world, and the search produced nothing.

So, I am appealing to everyone on this forum that might have the original, or knows someone who has it - could I PLEASE borrow it next month? I'll pay for FedEx or UPS delivery both ways if I could borrow the original for a week. The competition is exactly in a month, but I need to know ASAP if I can get the score from anyone. Or, if there are originals floating out there, someone would like to sell them - I'd also be willing to buy as many as are offered (other teachers I talked to would like to replace their copies). Please respond either way, and please do it ASAP - I need to know. Thanks!

Musically yours,
Jelena Vladikovic, B. Mus., M.Mus.
Founding Teacher, National Music Certificate Program
DMA Candidate/TA ASU Piano Prep/Conservatory Program
Email: jvladikovic@cox.net
http://members.cox.net/jelenavladikovic

Hi Jelena, sorry, I don't have a copy, but for your information, the copy right period here in the USA is not 50 years, but either 95 or 100. Yes, I know it's 50 in most of the rest of the world, including all of Europe, and since he only died in 1981, it's going to be a long time before it becomes public domain here.

Do you know who the original publisher was? Do they have a USA representative? If so, call them and ask them to send you an authorized copy. I've done that with other out of print material with no problems, as long as you can show it came from a publisher and was paid for.

Good luck.

It was NEVER NEVER published in the US, or anywhere out of the USSR for that matter! So, I am basically S.O.L. and so is my student.

Jelena, several of the old Soviet publishers did have US representatives. The question is how to find out who they were. I see that students at Juilliard have performed this work, so you might contact their librarian and ask if they have any loan arrangements, can identify the Soviet publisher, if they know who the US representative is, etc.

Jelena, I just listened to the Variations on NPR's From the Top. What a delightful piece. I wish you success. Perhaps some of our European friends can query their music distributors and see if a copy can be found. I would love one myself!

Jelena:

I sent you a PM.

Found it thanks to this forum's reader. He gave me the volume and ISBN, I searched Russian sites and found the rest. No wonder nobody could find it - it is in Book 2, Volume 5 of the Allegro - Intensive Piano Course published in Russia in 2001; the course author is T. Smirnova (ISBN 5-7873-0015-9), and the publisher is "Grail" (Издательский дом Грааль in Russian). Since I have connections in Moscow, it should be easy to get it. Problem now is that only books 4 and 6 from Book 2 of the series are currently available from most sellers. But, it's possible some of the stores in Moscow still have it. Stay tuned! :-)))

Wonderful!

Dear Jelena,

Just like you I was desperately searching for Berkovich: Variations on a Paganini Theme. I found ISBN that you provided, however, the book is out of stock currently in Moscow and I was not able to purchase it. Have you been successful in getting this book? If yes, could you please share it for competition? (I can buy it or if it is impossible I can use it and return it back you). Or may be you could let me know how I can get this book.

I would greatly appreciate your advice and help.

Thank you,
Olga