String instruments > Violin and Piano
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Violin Concerto e minor op. 64
Editor: Ullrich Scheideler
Piano reduction: Johannes Umbreit
Fingering and bowing for Violin: Igor Ozim
21.00 €
Urtext Edition, Piano reduction, paperbound
with marked and unmarked string parts
Pages: 88 (VII, 53, 14, 14)
Order no. HN 720 · ISMN M-2018-0720-1
Level of difficulty (Violin): difficult (Level 8)
For the first time this celebrated concerto will now appear in a source-critical edition. Ullrich Scheideler depicts how the work evolved, describes its sources, and comments on the musical text. The well-known violinist Igor Ozim has marked up Mendelssohn’s approved violin part, adding fingering and bowing marks as an aid to today’s performers. He has also supplied a separate commentary showing that Mendelssohn’s autograph already contains useful suggestions for shaping the solo part. The piano reduction – a revised version of the one that accompanied the first edition – lies well under the fingers while remaining as faithful as possible to the original text.
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