String instruments > Violin and Piano
Edouard Lalo
Symphonie espagnole d minor op. 21 for Violin and Orchestra
Editor: Peter Jost
Piano reduction: Johannes Umbreit
Fingering and bowing for Violin: Kurt Guntner
22.00 €
Urtext Edition, Piano reduction, paperbound
with marked and unmarked string parts
Pages: 107 (VII, 54, 23, 23), Size 23,5 x 31,0 cm
Order no. HN 709 · ISMN M-2018-0709-6
Level of difficulty (Violin): difficult (Level 8)
The Symphonie espagnole for violin and orchestra, perhaps Lalo’s best-known composition, is found in the repertoire of violinists everywhere. The première on 7 February 1875 was greeted by storms of applause from the Parisian audience and marked Lalo’s breakthrough. He wrote the work for his friend Pablo de Sarasate, who played it at his concerts and quickly made it known throughout Europe. This edition is the first to make use of Lalo’s autograph manuscripts.
Audio example: Shlomo Mintz
Deutsche Grammophon 028945789620
Reviews
As befits this publishing house, the piano reduction and solo violin part are carefully edited with attention to detail and phrasing and fingering suggestions are idiomatic.
[Stringendo, 2003]
The Symphonie Espagnole … is one of four major orchestral works. … This edition is a reduction for piano and violin and is based on an autographed copy dated the same year as the original orchestral version.
[Sheet Music, 2002]
Was die Ausgabe auf jeden Fall empfehlenswert macht, ist, daß die Fingersätze von Kurt Guntner auf sehr umsichtige Weise auf den heutigen Stand der Violintechnik gebracht wurden, wie sie sich seit Galamian & Co. weltweit durchgesetzt hat. Denn dieses Werk liegt so gut in der Hand, daß zumindest die ersten drei Sätze vom griffsicheren Liebhaber mit Genuß bewältigt werden können. Und den sollte man sich doch nicht entgehen lassen.
[Das Liebhaberorchester, 2002]
The levels of difficulty of the
music for violin published by G. Henle Publishers
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| easy | medium | difficult | ||||||
The levels of difficulty of the violin music published by G. Henle Publishers
| Level | Degree | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | easy | Beethoven, 6 German Dances WoO 42 |
| 2 | Beethoven, Rondo G major WoO 41 |
|
| 3 | Mozart, Violin Sonata F major KV 547 |
|
| 4 | medium | Haydn, Violin Concerto A major Hob. VIIa:3 |
| 5 | Bach, Violin Concerto a minor BWV 1041 |
|
| 6 | Brahms, Violin Sonata G major op. 78 |
|
| 7 | difficult | Paganini, No. 9 from Capricci op. 1 |
| 8 | Beethoven, Violin Concerto D major op. 61 |
|
| 9 | Berg, Violin Concerto |
I have assigned all of the violin music in G. Henle Publishers' catalogue a level of difficulty, ranging from "very easy" to "very difficult". The model for this was the evaluation system with nine levels developed for Henle's piano catalogue by Rolf Koenen. Unlike the works for solo piano, I have decided against evaluations that lie between two levels (e.g. 4/5 or 7/8).
This kind of attempt will always be "relative" to some degree. While the work remains the work, what is relative is the technical and musical ability of the player. Let us take a look at Mozart, for example, from the perspective of an Arthur Grumiaux and from that of a very young pupil. It is clear to whom my levels of difficulty are addressed: to the pupils or their teacher. I have, of course, always endeavoured to objectively assess the purely technical level of difficulty. But everything "between the lines" is, of course, left up to the judgement of each individual musician. Depending on our abilities, we perceive the "difficulty" of a work for violin differently, yet with the same conviction.
At the start, categorizing violin literature into levels of difficulty from 1 to 9 seemed to carry a certain risk as well as being unknown territory, yet I have now gained a deep insight into all of the works for violin in G. Henle Publishers' catalogue.
Ernst Schliephake © 2013