Published in early 1806, Kreutzer’s “40 Études ou Caprices” for violin – there are 42 today – are the product of his years-long employment at the Conservatoire de Paris and are the most comprehensive collection of studies from his quill. Their systematic and complete reappraisal of essential violin technique make them an indispensable tool of the trade for every serious student of the violin (conservatory level). In the intervening two centuries, numerous reprints by various publishers followed the Parisian first edition, frequently adapted by famous soloists and teachers. Just a few years after the first edition, Kreutzer published a complete revision of this standard work in which he exchanged or heavily altered etudes. This second version of the collection forms the basis for our Urtext edition, which nevertheless presents the variants from the early edition as well. The virtuoso and sought-after violin pedagogue Ingolf Turban acted as a consultant for this edition and furnished it with modern markings so that it provides an ideal foundation for contemporary violin instruction.
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- 42 Etudes for Violin solo
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Preface
Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766 – 1831) was acclaimed during his lifetime as a composer for both stage and concert hall, and as a top-flight violin virtuoso. Nowadays, however, he is recognized by the musical world for two other reasons. On the one hand, Beethoven’s dedication of the “Kreutzer” Sonata, op. 47, to him has rendered him immortal; and on the other, every … more
Critical Commentary
About the authors
Norbert Gertsch (Editor)
Dr. Norbert Gertsch, born in 1967 in Rheinkamp/Moers, studied piano solo at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and read musicology and philosophy at the Paris Lodron University in Salzburg and the Ruperto Carola University Heidelberg on a scholarship from the “Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes”. In 1996 he wrote his doctoral thesis on Ludwig van Beethoven’s Missa solemnis (as part of the New Complete Edition) under Ludwig Finscher.
In the following year, he began work at G. Henle Publishers, initially as an editor for electronic publishing. After working on a two-year project (1999–2000) sponsored by the German Research Foundation (DFG) preparing a new Beethoven Catalogue of Works, he became a scholarly editor at G. Henle Publishers. In 2003 he became Editor-in-Chief and in 2009 Deputy Managing Director and Head of Publishing. Gertsch has published many Urtext editions for G. Henle Publishers, including volumes for a new edition of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas together with Murray Perahia.
