String instruments > Violin and Piano
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Violin Concerto no. 2 D major K. 211
Editor: Wolf-Dieter Seiffert
Piano reduction: Siegfried Petrenz
Fingering and bowing for Violin: Kurt Guntner
Cadenzas: Kurt Guntner
14.50 €
Urtext Edition, Piano reduction, paperbound
with marked and unmarked string parts
Pages: 45 (III, 22, 11, 9), Size 23,5 x 31,0 cm
Order no. HN 705 · ISMN M-2018-0705-8
Level of difficulty (Violin): medium (Level 5)
The "little" D-major Violin Concerto has no need to hide behind its "big sister", K. 218. Not only does it challenge the player’s technique, it’s a masterpiece of the first order. Henle’s edition stands out for the textual fidelity of its solo part and its easy-to-play but sonorous piano reduction. When Henle publishes Mozart’s First Concerto (K. 207) next autumn, its catalogue will cover all five of the violin concertos and all three of the single movements.
Reviews
Wolf-Dieter Seiffert has written a Preface to his fine Henle Urtext edition, detailing the sources and commenting on performance practices, while fingering, bowing, cadenzas and lead-ins have been for the most part, carefully attended to by Kurt Guntner. Orchestration is usefully indicated in Siegfried Petrenz’s clear piano score. The first movement of this concerto is in the AMEB Eight Grade List B.
[Stringendo, 2005]
The Preface gives a historical background to the concertos as well as a useful note on the different bow strokes used by Mozart. Here is a fine edition from this revered publishing house.
The first movement is in the AMEB Grade 8 List B.
[Music Teacher Magazine, 2004]
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