With his Variations on “La Follia”, a Spanish dance tune from the late Renaissance, Antonio Salieri made music history: although composers such as Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven had already incorporated orchestral variation movements into symphonies and concertos, and ‘La Follia’ had by that time frequently been the subject of arrangements, it was with this work that Salieri presented the first self-contained cycle of orchestral variations in the history of music.

John Snyder’s scholarly-critical edition is based on a meticulous evaluation of the only surviving source, an autograph score by Salieri. In addition to a detailed Introduction (Eng/Ger), the edition contains a Critical Commentary (Eng) as well as performance practice notes on specific aspects of the work, such as the “in lontano” strings, timpani tuning and ornamentation. This edition thus provides today’s orchestras with flexible performance options, further enhanced by parts that include alternative passages (ossia).