Juilliard gets manuscripts

A commodities trader who secretly amassed manuscripts handwritten by the titans of classical music has donated his collection to the Juilliard School, the conservatory announced Tuesday.

The 139-piece collection ranges from Purcell’s opera “Dido and Aeneas,” dating to the 1680s, to works by Schnittke written in the 1990s. Also included are works by J.S. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Liszt, Wagner, Mahler and Stravinsky, among others.

Bruce Kovner, chairman of Juilliard’s board and founder of Caxton Associates, acquired the items during the last decade by making anonymous purchases at auctions.

Among his acquisitions was Beethoven’s 80-page piano transcription of the “Grosse Fuge,” discovered recently at a suburban Philadelphia seminary. Kovner, the now no-longer-anonymous buyer, purchased it for $1.95 million late last year at Sotheby’s in London.