[WAGNER

[WAGNER, RICHARD]A RARE BOUND COLLECTION OF PROGRAMMES FOR THE WAGNER FESTIVAL HELD AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL IN MAY 1877London, Hodge and Essex, [1877]. 4to, first edition, 6 parts in one containing programmes for each of the original six concerts, each with separate pagination, starting with the 'First Concert' on May 7 1877 (30pp) then the Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Concerts (37, 27, 54, and 26pp respectively), culminating in the Sixth Concert on May 19 (40pp). Bound together in original publisher's gilt-decorated red cloth, inner hinges split, cloth a little rubbed and dusty, spine present but now separated from the text-block on one side, internally clean and fresh. There are contemporary pencil notes to the endpapers and to the text in a number of programmes, referring to changes to the scheduled performances etc. - suggesting this copy may have belonged to someone directly involved in the Wagner Festival. Comes with a separately printed loose broadside for the Fourth Concert, published in London by Blakeman and Jagger. This is the first edition containing the 6 performances as originally planned - a subsequent edition included the additional Seventh and Eighth Concerts added later. Rare, no other copies found for sale on the market and COPAC records just the British Library copy