Ignaz Pleyel – no newcomer to the Henle catalogue

Posted on September 27, 2021 by Norbert Gertsch

It’s one of the curious twists and turns in music history that the composer Ignaz Pleyel, so extremely famous and popular at the turn of the 19th century, is no longer at home today on concert stages around the world – his music is practically not part of the repertoire anymore. Conversely, we do, though, occasionally hear it in the city centre performed by street musicians, for it seems particularly appealing, sometimes even sprightly, and thus fills the purse as it did back then. Reason enough to deal more intensively with Pleyel in our Urtext series “Easy Repertoire”. Continue reading →

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G sharp or G? About a bass trill in Schubert’s A-flat-major Impromptu D 935, No. 2

Posted on September 13, 2021 by Wolf-Dieter Seiffert

Franz Schubert‘s piano music is almost an infinitely magical wonderland. As is well known, he can modulate amazingly to the most harmonically remote regions within a minimum amount of space – and back again. So also in the much-played Impromptu in A-flat major D 935, No. 2. Its middle section in D-flat major has always been one of my absolute favourite Schubert passages. A pleasurable shiver runs down my spine every time the gentle triplet section begins with its hidden melody: Continue reading →

Posted in harmonics, piano solo, Schubert, Franz, variant reading | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Summer Break

Posted on August 2, 2021 by publisher

Summer is vacation time and our blog is also taking a short break. Camping with our Henle bus at home in our own country is trendy this year. So, let’s get going! Our authors are already coming up with exciting new topics for future blogposts. Look forward now to the new blogposts starting on 13 September 2021!

 

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Bach-Busoni – a successful Henle series with sequels

Posted on July 19, 2021 by Norbert Müllemann

Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924)

Another Bach-Busoni edition recently came on the music market as a Henle Urtext edition: The famous organ toccata in D minor, known to almost every child and congenially transcribed for piano by Busoni. Continue reading →

Posted in arrangement, Bach, Johann Sebastian, Busoni, Ferruccio, Toccata D minor BWV 565 | Tagged , | Leave a comment

How do fossils behave? On a passage in Saint-Saëns’ Carnaval des animaux

Posted on July 5, 2021 by Peter Jost

When a composer decides against publishing one of his works during his lifetime, there are usually good reasons: Either it is a youthful or study work that would be too insignificant for publication or it represents a style that has meantime been abandoned. Or it features an occasional work in the truest sense of that word, intended only for private performance. The latter applies also to Camille Saint-Saëns’ probably most popular composition, Le Carnaval des animaux (composed in 1886, posthumously published in 1922). Continue reading →

Posted in Monday Postings, Saint-Saëns, Camille, Urtext | Tagged | 1 Comment

The agony of choice – lieder by Richard Strauss

Posted on June 21, 2021 by Annette Oppermann

Richard Strauss (1864–1949)

Incredible, but true: unannounced so far in this blog is the entrance last year in the Henle universe of one of the greatest of 20th-century composers – Richard Strauss! This is, of course, owing to a certain composer, “B”, whose 250th birthday we so extensively celebrated here that some things had to stand back. But now, finally, it’s high time to introduce Strauss to this forum. For this modern classic’s edition naturally presented the Henle editorial department with completely new challenges. Whilst my colleagues were dealing with instrumental music and, when editing duo sonatas and solo concertos, were settling questions of transmission and text in close collaboration with performing musicians, I, as lied editor, initially once had, totally banally, the agony of choice: where to start with the more than 200 lieder for voice and piano that Strauss bequeathed to us, each one more beautiful than the other? Continue reading →

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“…probably the best of Dvořák that I’m acquainted with.” What’s worth knowing about the Wind Serenade in d minor op. 44

Posted on June 7, 2021 by Dominik Rahmer

Even though recently the focus of attention owing to their anniversaries has been on composers like Debussy, Beethoven or currently Saint-Saëns, Antonín Dvořák seems to me to be the secret luminary in the Henle programme. Since 2015, no fewer than eleven new Urtext editions of his works have been published by our publishing house, amongst them, many large and central works of his oeuvre such as the late String Quartets opp. 96, 105 und 106, the Piano Quintet op. 81, the Piano Trio op. 65 and the Humoresques for piano op. 101. Our new edition of the Wind Serenade in d minor op. 44 (HN 1234/HN 7234) will be appearing in the next few days, completing the dozen. And so, of course, it goes on: already in progress for this autumn are Dvořák’s “Slavonic” String Quartet in E-flat major op. 51 and – a special highlight – his legendary Cello Concerto. Continue reading →

Posted in autograph, Dvořák, Antonín, first edition, Instrumentation, Monday Postings, Wind Serenade op. 44 (Dvořák) | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy and the challenges of an Urtext edition

Posted on May 24, 2021 by Norbert Gertsch

In the already more than 70 years since the founding of our publishing house, we have time and again developed wonderful, friendly relationships with first-rate artists, often having a very fruitful effect on our editorial work. Today, I’d like to give a current example of this, which put us on the track of re-evaluating our edition of Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy. Continue reading →

Posted in Claudius Tanski, Monday Postings, piano solo, Schubert, Franz, Wanderer Fantasy in C major op. 15 (Schubert) | 1 Comment

Attempt at re-dating Mozart’s three popular “Quartet-Divertimenti”, K. 136–138

Posted on May 10, 2021 by Wolf-Dieter Seiffert

In conjunction with my Urtextausgabe of the well-known and much-played “Divertimenti”,  K. 136–138, just about to be published, it became clear that Mozart’s own, unusually vague dating at the head of his autograph, “Salisburgo 1772”, cannot be entirely accurate. I’m assuming, rather, that he was already working on the composition of these three works in Milan from the late autumn of 1771, only then to finish them in Salzburg at the start of 1772.  I’d like briefly to substantiate this hypothesis in this blog post. Continue reading →

Posted in Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, string quartet | Tagged | Leave a comment

Bach’s harpsichord concertos and their autograph

Posted on April 26, 2021 by Norbert Müllemann

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)

If you’re looking for a simple answer to the question about the source situation for Johann Sebastian Bach’s works, it is that the situation is neither really “good” nor “bad”. Bach’s compositions have come down to us in many and various forms: Sometimes these are admirable fair copies such as for the St. Matthew Passion or for the Inventions and Sinfonias (see our edition HN 589); some are extant only in copyists’ manuscripts, ultimately leaving open whether Bach actually composed the work in question (a famous case: the d-minor Organ Toccata BWV 565, see our edition of the Busoni arrangement HN 1479. Continue reading →

Posted in Bach, Johann Sebastian, genesis, piano + orchestra | Tagged , | 1 Comment