Bordering on the modern – The Urtext edition of Schumann’s “Myrthen” op. 25

Posted on February 18, 2019 by Annette Oppermann

Considering that specifically for 19th-century works the first edition is frequently the most important source for preparing the Urtext edition, we could pose the question of why we re-typeset our Urtexts at all – when the few errors there could often so easily be corrected by retouching the original print. But quite apart from the fact that in many cases the necessary corrections couldn’t sometimes even be realised at all within the original layout, the little word “modern” comes into play here, (also) to grace our Urtext editions. Continue reading →

Posted in Monday Postings, Schumann, Robert | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Version alert! Or: Did Brahms ever revise his Horn Trio?

Posted on February 4, 2019 by Dominik Rahmer

A few days ago a customer enquiry momentarily gave me pause: Whether our new edition of the Johannes Brahms Horn Trio in E-flat major op. 40 (HN 811) reproduced the first version of 1866 or the second version of 1891? But a later revision of a trio was done by Brahms for just the B-major Trio op. 8 – or has something else come up…? Continue reading →

Posted in Brahms, Johannes, horn, Monday Postings, revision, versions | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Ten at a stroke – Scriabin’s piano sonatas in one volume

Posted on January 21, 2019 by Norbert Müllemann

Many a Henle fan familiar with our catalog will know that some of our works are available in “duplicate”, that is, in both a single edition and within an anthology. As an Urtext publisher we are committed to transmitting the sources, therefore we normally issue works just as they left the hands of their composers. Continue reading →

Posted in G. Henle Publishers, Monday Postings, piano solo, Piano Sonatas (Scriabin), Scriabin, Alexander | Tagged | Leave a comment

An unaccountable (?) fermata notation in Mozart’s string quartet K. 428

Posted on January 7, 2019 by Wolf-Dieter Seiffert

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)

That Mozart, when writing carefully, graphically distinguishes between the dot and the stroke, ought to be beyond dispute to anyone knowing his handwriting. Though here we’re not going to argue about the performance-practice significance that this graphic distinction may or may not have. Today I want to present an extremely odd “stroke” notation of Mozart’s. Continue reading →

Posted in accent, Monday Postings, Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, string quartet | Tagged , | 8 Comments

The Nutcracker in ballet and film

Posted on December 24, 2018 by publisher

The Nutcracker is as closely associated with the Christmas season as Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, the Christmas tree and gingerbread. A ballet visit is a fixed tradition for many classical music fans.   Continue reading →

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40 or 42? Rodolphe Kreutzer’s Etudes as Urtext edition

Posted on December 10, 2018 by Norbert Gertsch

Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766–1831)

There could not be a bigger difference: When you are preparing to edit a work of the Classical and Romantic greats, you can rely on an abundance of information from a sea of scholarly literature. When you turn to composers still long enshrined in the repertoire by only a few works or even a single work, you are often faced with – nothing! Rodolphe Kreutzer is nearly just such a case. Continue reading →

Posted in 40 Etudes ou Caprices (Kreutzer), Kreutzer, Rodolphe, Monday Postings, Urtext, Violin | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Debussy in Urtext – Part 6: Interview with Pascal Rogé

Posted on November 26, 2018 by Peter Jost

Pascal Rogé

In the final part of our little series we want to put our Debussy editions to a practical test. And who could be more appropriate for this than the French pianist Pascal Rogé? He has been setting standards for decades with his concerts and recordings of 19th– and 20th-century French music, including making a highly acclaimed complete recording of Debussy’s piano works finished in 2010! Continue reading →

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A tear for or from Rossini?

Posted on November 12, 2018 by Annette Oppermann

Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868)

November 13 marks the 150th anniversary of Gioacchino Rossini’s death, so we can shed a tear! And we at Henle are even issuing a piece by the master himself, that is, “Une larme” (A Tear) for double bass and piano. Rossini dedicated this melancholy musical miniature in 1858 to a deceased friend – but why it even so gives our editor Tobias Glöckler pleasure, he explained to me in conversation. Continue reading →

Posted in autograph, Instrumentation, Monday Postings, piano + double bass, Rossini, Gioacchino, Tobias Glöckler, Une larme (Rossini) | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Rachmaninoff revises Rachmaninoff. On the two versions of the Second Piano Sonata op. 36

Posted on October 29, 2018 by Dominik Rahmer

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943)

In my last blog posting I went into the genesis of Rachmaninoff’s 2nd piano sonata and its world première, but today I would like to consider some of this work’s musical problems. Or, actually, these two works, for the sonata is known to exist in two distinctly different versions (from 1913 and 1931), both were published and authorised by the composer. Continue reading →

Posted in 2nd piano sonata op. 36 (Rachmaninoff), Monday Postings, piano solo, Rachmaninoff, Sergei, revision, variant reading, versions | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

From sketch to first edition: the (almost) seamless source documentation of Edward Elgar’s violin sonata

Posted on October 15, 2018 by Norbert Müllemann

Edward Elgar (1857–1934)

Many Urtext editions and their sources cross the desk of an editor at the G. Henle publishing house – but we are seldom dealing with such a comprehensive source documentation as is the case with Elgar’s violin sonata. Nearly every step of the work’s genesis can still be re-traced today, and yet in preparing this edition its editors were constantly confronted with unresolved issues – how could that be? Continue reading →

Posted in Elgar, Edward, genesis, Monday Postings, piano + violin, Sources, Violin Sonata op. 82 (Elgar) | Tagged , | 2 Comments