“My obsession with improvement is a chronic, incurable affliction”. On Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2

Posted on February 9, 2026 by Peter Jost

The Weimar years as of 1848 marked a profound turning point in Liszt’s life. This was owing, on the one hand, to his decision to live with Princess Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein, whom he had met in Kiev in 1847, and who subsequently exerted a great influence on him; on the other hand, to his abandoning of his career as a piano virtuoso and focussing on composing alongside his official duties as “extraordinary kapellmeister”. Encouraged by his experiences as a conductor, he devoted himself to composing in such new genres as the symphonic poem, but also to revising an array of works, both already published or even still unpublished. Continue reading →

Posted in autograph, engraver’s copy, Liszt, Franz, Monday Postings, new source, piano + orchestra, revision, variant reading | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

New year, new luck: Welcome Sebastian Lee!

Posted on January 12, 2026 by Annette Oppermann

Sebastian Lee (1805–1887)

Do you love Lee? This question will likely be answered only by those amongst this blog’s esteemed readers who have ever held a cello between their knees. For, added to our catalogue at the end of last year was cellist and composer Sebastian Lee (1805–1887), who is famous today only for his pedagogical works. These enjoy, however, an almost unbelievable popularity – be it the Méthode pratique pour le violoncelle, op. 30, published in Paris in 1842 and presently still available, or collections of études such as the 40 Études mélodiques et progressive, op. 31 (HN 1519), composed for the Paris Conservatoire in 1843, which recently enriched our catalogue. Continue reading →

Posted in engraver’s copy, first edition, Lee, Sebastian, Monday Postings, new source, reprint, revision, versions, violoncello | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Christmas Blog

Posted on December 23, 2025 by publisher

Christmas is a festival of loved ones, gifts and consequently joy, even disappointment at times. We are therefore pleased to announce that for the year’s last printing at G. Henle Publishers, we have produced several truly wonderful editions, perfectly suited to enhance your personal Christmas celebrations, though these – often the best presents! – will not arrive in time for the festivities. According to the production schedule, they’ll be under the Christmas tree just when it’s about to be taken down on Candlemas.

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Mozart’s last piano concerto – re-encountering a classic

Posted on December 8, 2025 by Norbert Müllemann

You know that feeling? For years, you’ve been familiar with a painting or a music piece, looked at it or listened to it countless times – and then you notice a detail you hadn’t seen before, giving your view of the artwork a new direction. That’s what happened to me as editor when I had on my desk my favourite Mozart piano concerto (No. 27, B-flat major, K. 595). But first things first.

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Posted in autograph, Fingering, first edition, genesis, Monday Postings, Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, ornamentation, piano + orchestra, Piotr Anderszewski | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Arcis meets Alexander – Glazunov’s saxophone quartet finally in a reliable Urtext edition

Posted on November 10, 2025 by Dominik Rahmer

Arcis Saxophone Quartet (© arcisvisuals)

Some time ago, a young Munich ensemble surprised us with an unusual request: the Arcis Saxophone Quartet, winners of numerous awards and at home on international stages, proposed a joint edition project involving a repertoire piece that for decades saxophonists worldwide have been forced to play from a single old, flawed edition. A case for Henle!🕵️‍♂️

After intensive archival research and source comparisons, we have now published this year the result of this laborious editorial work: the first Urtext edition of Alexander Glazunov’s Saxophone Quartet in B-flat major, op. 109 (HN 1046), composed in 1932, which is, in a sense, the founding document of this genre and remains to this day one of the most important of all compositions for classical saxophone. Continue reading →

Posted in Arcis Saxophone Quartet, autograph, copy, first edition, Glasunow, Alexander, letter, Monday Postings, new source, saxophone quartet, Urtext, variant reading | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

A new music treasure trove

Posted on October 13, 2025 by Andreas Pernpeintner

Henriëtte Bosmans in 1917,
Photo: Jacob Merkelbach

Concert halls, in which no music by female composers is heard, are no longer imaginable, though still not a given, for inertia forces in classical music are not to be underestimated. Many believe that music history has miraculously and automatically made, unbiased, a purely qualitative selection in terms of what dominates concert programmes worldwide. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms – they were simply the best, and if no woman has managed to produce similarly great art, that fact cannot be altered. In comparison, a different insight is finally gaining ground: If music by female composers has often fallen below the so-called threshold of perception, this situation says nothing about the music itself, but only the more about the (often male) designers of this so-called perception threshold. Continue reading →

Posted in Bosmans, Henriëtte, first edition, Monday Postings, piano + violoncello | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

At the pinnacle of virtuosity

Posted on September 8, 2025 by Andreas Pernpeintner

Charles -Valentin Alkan, ca. 1865 (photo of unknown origin, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris)

“Alkan? Lots of notes!” – That’s what you hear when mentioning that you’ve edited the Symphonie for piano by French composer Charles Valentin Alkan (1813–1888) for Henle: HN 1657. And “lots of notes”, coupled with the expert French pronunciation of “Alkan”, is all that many music professionals know about this composer, myself included until recently. This is not surprising, considering how much Alkan shunned publicity, though in no way does it reflect the increasing importance (documented in a growing number of recordings) that his music is accorded by those studying 19th-century piano virtuosity or even capable of playing the works. Beyond question, this requires pianistically masterful hands. Three are ideal. The great pianist Marc-André Hamelin is, for example, one of those terrific Alkan interpreters who have three hands. Continue reading →

Posted in Alkan, Charles Valentin, Fingering, Marc-André Hamelin, Monday Postings, piano solo, Vincenzo Maltempo | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Summer Break

Posted on August 11, 2025 by publisher

As summer has begun, our blog is taking a short break until September. But what is Maurice Ravel, this year’s big anniversary celebrant, up to? Continue reading →

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Between distance and admiration – Satie and Ravel

Posted on July 14, 2025 by Peter Jost

Whilst this year the classical music world is undoubtedly focussed on Maurice Ravel’s 150th birthday, another French composer’s anniversary should not be completely forgotten: Erik Satie’s 100th anniversary of death on 1 July 2025. And what could be more natural than to take a closer look at the relationship between the two? For although Satie was a complete musical outsider in his day, he had many contacts with important musicians and composers in fin-de-siècle and Belle Époque Paris, including, amongst others, not only Ravel, but also Claude Debussy, Albert Roussel, Igor Stravinsky and Ricardo Viñes.

left: Erik Satie (1866–1925), right: Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)

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Posted in dedication, Gymnopédie (Satie), Monday Postings, Pavane (Ravel), piano solo, Ravel, Maurice, Satie, Erik | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Rostropovich and Atovmyan – the two midwives of Prokofiev’s Cello Sonata op. 119

Posted on June 10, 2025 by Annette Oppermann

Mstislav Rostropovich is considered one of the greatest cellists of the 20th century. His art has inspired numerous composers around the world to write works for the cello – including Prokofiev for his Cello Sonata op. 119. When preparing our new Urtext edition of this sonata, I was therefore all the more surprised to discover that, alongside Rostropovich, another musician played a very important role in the genesis and dissemination of this work – albeit in a completely different way: Levon Atovmyan, who is also the sonata’s dedicatee. Reason enough to take a closer look at this man in the background!

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Posted in autograph, dedication, first edition, genesis, Monday Postings, Mstislav Rostropowitsch, piano + violoncello, Prokofiev, Sergei, Sviatoslav Richter, versions | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment