The repertoire of the publishing group features more than 1,900 composers.
Universal Music Publishing Classical Universal Music Publishing Classical (UMPC) is a publishing group consisting of five publishing houses: Casa Ricordi (Italy) Éditions Durand-Salabert-Eschig (France) G. Ricordi & Co. Bühnen- und Musikverlag GmbH Berlin (Germany) Editio Musica Budapest (Hungary) G. Ricordi & Co. London Ltd. (UK) The repertoire of the publishing group features more than 1.900 composers, including legendary composers such as Debussy, Puccini, Ravel and Verdi, modern classics such as Grisey, Kodály, Nono, Varèse and Xenakis as well as leading contemporary composers like Dusapin, Francesconi, Kurtág and Neuwirth. Universal Music Publishing Classical was founded in 2007 when the BMG Music Publishing group was acquired by the Universal Music Group, the world’s largest music company which also includes record labels such as Decca, Philips and Deutsche Grammophon. The Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) is the global leader in music publishing, with offices in 43 countries.
Ricordi The story of Casa Ricordi is inseparable from the history of the last two centuries of Italian music, and in particular, Italian opera. Founded in Milan in 1808 by Giovanni Ricordi, a Leipzig-trained music publisher, Ricordi formed a close connection with Teatro alla Scala in 1814 when he was engaged to copy all of the theatre’s performance materials. In 1825, Ricordi purchased the entire music library of La Scala, which formed the basis of its business of supplying materials to the leading opera companies of the world. In 1839, Ricordi published Oberto conte di San Bonifacio, Verdi’s first opera, thus beginning a lifetime collaboration with the world’s leading Italian opera composer. By the end of the 19th Century, under the leadership of Giovanni’s son Tito (Tito I) and his grandson, Giulio, Ricordi’s name was known throughout the musical world. With the guidance and support of Guilio Ricordi, Giacomo Puccini rose to international fame, even rivalling Verdi in the number of performances worldwide. One hundred years after its founding and in its fourth generation as a family business, Ricordi’s catalogue had grown from a few hundred titles to more than 110,000 and was transformed into an important international enterprise with branches throughout the world. The company continued to publish Italian music for opera, concerts and recitals by signing notable early 20th-century composers Alfano, Busoni, Casella, Catalani, Falla, Ghedini, Malipiero, Montemezzi, Pizzetti, Ponchielli, Respighi, Varèse, WolfFerrari, Zandonai and many others. This commitment to contemporary music continues to this day and resulted in an extensive repertoire of late20th and 21st century works by Battistelli, Berio, Bussotti, Castiglioni, Corghi, Dallapiccola, Donatoni, Francesconi, Grisey, Maderna, Manzoni, Nieder, Nono, Romitelli, Sciarrino, Stroppa and Vacchi.
One hundred years after its founding in 1808, Ricordi’s catalogue had grown from a few hundred titles to more than 110,000. In the 1980’s, Ricordi brought new energy and attention to the great Italian music repertoire of the past through the development of critical editions of operas by composers such as Bellini, Donizetti, Puccini, Rossini and Verdi, and of older music, like the editions of Andrea Gabrieli, Scarlatti, Vivaldi, and collections of Venetian music theatre works and Neapolitan music. These series, which combine the latest scholarship with beautifully-presented practical performing editions, are recognized around the world as the “gold standard” for authoritative editions of both traditional opera favorites and works worthy of revival from unmerited obscurity. Ricordi & Co. Bühnen- und Musikverlag (Berlin), founded in 1901, is the German branch of Casa Ricordi. In the second half of the 20th century it started signing its own composers such as Heiner Goebbels, Klaus Huber, Olga Neuwirth, Younghi Pagh-Paan and Enno Poppe. Additionally Ricordi Berlin publishes critical editions of Simone Mayr and Giacomo Meyerbeer. Ricordi Berlin also owns the Rob. Forberg Verlag, one of the most important catalogues of Russian music with works by Prokofieff, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Glinka and others. G Ricordi & Co. (London) Ltd. started life in 1878 as the British branch of Casa Ricordi, and at that time owned the rights to the Italian catalogue in the UK and other countries in the former British Empire. Ricordi London’s own roster includes Dai Fujikura, Graham Fitkin, Joseph Phibbs and Adam Schoenberg. In 2015 Ricordi London took charge of the Lengnick catalogue which includes many important works of British classical music by composers such as William Alwyn, Malcolm Arnold and Alun Hoddinott.
A selection from the UMPC roster Giuseppe Verdi
Giorgio Battistelli
Gaetano Donizetti
Alexander v. Zemlinsky
Giacomo Puccini
Pascal Dusapin
Vincenzo Bellini
Claude Debussy
Luca Francesconi
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Camille Saint-SaĂŤns
Gabriel FaurĂŠ
Ottorino Respighi
Darius Milhaud
Luigi Nono
Maurice Ravel
Béla Bartók
György Kurtág
Philippe Manoury
Franz Liszt
P. I. Tschaikowski
Olga Neuwirth
Olivier Messiaen
Zoltán Kodály
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Gioachino Rossini
Enno Poppe
Francis Poulenc
Edgar Varèse
Iannis Xenakis
With more than 30,000 works in its catalogues, Éditions Durand-SalabertEschig is the leading classical music publisher in France.
Durand-Salabert-Eschig With more than 30,000 operas, symphonic works, chamber orchestra pieces and other works in its combined catalogues, Éditions Durand-Salabert-Eschig is the leading classical music publisher in France. Éditions Durand, founded in 1869 by Auguste Durand, developed a rich catalogue based on the most recognized French composers of the time: Camille Saint-Saëns, Gabriel Fauré, Vincent d’Indy, Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas, Guy Ropartz, Albert Roussel, Florent Schmitt, Maurice Ravel, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, Maurice Duruflé and André Jolivet. Éditions Salabert, who owes its variety and wealth of its collection to the genius of Francis Salabert and his wife Mica, made its name by publishing the Groupe des Six: Arthur Honegger, Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Germaine Tailleferre, Darius Milhaud and Francis Poulenc, but also published Erik Satie, Henri Sauguet, Ernest Chausson, Henri Duparc, Vincent d’Indy, Guy Ropartz, Albéric Magnard, Albert Roussel, Frédéric Mompou, Joaquin Turina and Isaac Albéniz among many others. Salabert continued to develop its repertoire of symphonic and chamber music, gradually amassing one of the premiere
catalogues of contemporary classical music. Amongst the composers in this group are Georges Aperghis, Iannis Xenakis, Giacinto Scelsi, André Boucourechliev, Henri Dutilleux, Marius Constant, Peter Eötvös, Pascal Dusapin, Michel Decoust, Betsy Jolas, Ivo Malec, Toru Takemitsu and Eric Tanguy. The catalogue of Éditions Max Eschig, founded in 1907, is entirely dedicated to music from the 20th century. It includes works by Erik Satie, Charles Koechlin, Charles Tournemire, Maurice Ravel, Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger, Francis Poulenc, Henri Sauguet, Eschig also published works of Isaac Albéniz, Joaquín Nin, Joaquin Turina and Ernesto Halffter. Max Eschig is also the main publisher for the composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, for Polish composers such as Karol Szymanowski and Alexandre Tansman, as well as works by the Romanian Marcel Mihalovici, the Czech Bohuslav Martinu, the Russian Alexandre Tcherepnine and the Hungarian Tibor Harsányi. Today, Éditions Durand-Salabert-Eschig, while proud of its legacy catalogue, pays special attention to the publishing of the works of the well-known living composers with whom they maintain very close working relationships. These relationships include both the publishing of new works and the management of existing repertoire to ensure continuing development of each composer’s career and artistic profile. The current roster of active Durand-Salabert-Eschig composers includes Pascal Dusapin, Philippe Manoury, Georges Aperghis, Philippe Hersant, Eric Tanguy, Oscar Bianchi, Yan Maresz, Hèctor Parra, Alberto Posadas, Philippe Schoeller, Bechara El-Khoury, Laurent Petitgirard, Michel Tabachnik, François Meïmoun, Samy Moussa, Jean-Frédéric Neuburger, Baptiste Trotignon, Blai Soler and other emerging talents. The complete catalogue of today’s Éditions Durand-Salabert-Eschig is composed of operatic and symphonic works, theatrical pieces, chamber music, instrumental and pedagogical works. In addition, Durand-Salabert-Eschig is a key participant in one of the most prestigious projects of French musicology: the critical edition of works by Claude Debussy, entitled OCCD (Œuvres Complètes de Claude Debussy).
Editio Musica Budapest Editio Musica Budapest (EMB) was established in 1950 as the legal successor to the nineteenth and twentieth-century Hungarian music publishers, and became part of the Ricordi group in 1994. The EMB catalogue contains over 10,000 compositions and covers both traditional and contemporary music: the great classical Hungarian and 20th-century composers like Ferenc Liszt, Ferenc Erkel, Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Endre Dohnányi, Leó Weiner, Ferenc Farkas and András Szollosy as well as the most important living composers of contemporary Hungarian music: almost the entire oeuvre of György Kurtág, works by Péter Eötvös, Jeney Zoltán and László Tihanyi, and compositions by Hungarian young Hungarian composers. The catalogue of EMB also includes educational publications and the gems of choral literature, especially 20th-century Hungarian choral works. In addition to its classical and contemporary publishing work, EMB also publishes and distributes more than 5,000 sheet music titles for sale and rental all over the world, and represents the entire Universal Music Group pop catalogue in Hungary.
The EMB catalogue contains over 10,000 compositions covering both traditional and contemporary music.
For more information, please contact one of the Universal Music Publishing Classical units: Casa Ricordi, Milan promozione.ricordi.Italy@umusic.com Éditions Durand-Salabert-Eschig promotion.umpc@umusic.com Ricordi Berlin info.ricordi@umusic.com Editio Musica Budapest emb@emb.hu Ricordi London promotion.ricordi.london@umusic.com Universal Music Publishing Classical North America umpg.classical@umusic.com