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
Yesterday evening I was once again sitting in the party tent at the world famous Munich Oktoberfest with a good Mass Bier***). Facing me sat four rather odd-looking men who introduced themselves as “perennial musicians”. I didn’t really quite catch their names (for the band in the tent was very loudly playing “music”). But their appearance and their speech certainly seemed somehow weird to me, in fact, “old-fashioned” – then suddenly it hit me, WHO they were, sitting at my table. Hard to believe, but for sure!! Continue reading
Correction in the proof of Masques.
Needless to say, every editor of an Urtext edition wishes to have a source situation as complete as possible, starting from the first sketch of a work up to the authorised edition appearing in the composer’s lifetime. A particularly important link in this chain are the autograph corrections from the galley proofs, since they connect the engraver’s model with the first edition and help to account for differences between these two sources. Continue reading
To my great joy, this year and last year the wonderful Antoine Tamestit has been heard several times in concert with a work that has long been completely unknown, even to connoisseurs of the viola repertoire: Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s Potpourri op. 94 for viola und orchestra. Continue reading
It’s vacation time and so the Henle-Blog is taking a break for summer as well.
We’d like to thank all of our readers for their interest and are looking forward to our next blog entry on September 3rd 2018.
We wish you a nice summer!
Your Henle Blog Team
Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
It goes without saying that the focus would be on Debussy’s piano works from the outset of Henle editions of the French composer’s music. For one thing, because the publishing house’s self-image was based from the start on the core repertoire of piano music forming its catalogue; but also because of Debussy’s large multitude of pioneering and popular compositions in this genre – from the Arabesques to the Études. Continue reading
Dénes Várjon
To continue my last blog with an overview of our Urtext editions of Bartók’s piano works, I am devoting today’s posting to a small but very significant aspect of these editions: their fingering and performance markings. And I am very happy that this time not only the great Hungarian Bartók scholar László Somfai but also the great Hungarian pianist – and Bartók specialist! – Dénes Várjon shared their opinions with me. Continue reading
Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Saratov, Smolensk, Voronezh – what do these Russian cities have in common? No, these are not venues of the World Cup, just starting in Russia… Continue reading
What a liberating, even redemptive impact that the unexpected major third closing a piece in the minor can have, is known above all to those of us who play and listen to Bach. To give just one example that everyone would know: The strictly and relentlessly advancing c-minor prelude from the first volume of the “Well-Tempered Clavier” bursts into bloom on the very last beat with a wonderful C-major triad. (Also, my favourite Bach prelude, the one in f-sharp minor, ending in F-sharp major, from the second volume.) “Picardy” is what Rousseau calls such a kind of replacement of the third at the end of a minor piece. Continue reading
Debussy at the piano
Editors of Urtext editions have added a new medium as a possible source for the period from about 1890 onwards: historical recordings, whether played by interpreters closely associated with the composer, or even by the composer himself. This is especially true of composers’ recordings of their own piano works, since most composers of the time were also good pianists who even performed in concerts. In conjunction with recordings by Debussy and Ravel of their own piano works, Peter Cossé has left us this beautiful bon mot, ‘acoustical view under the pianistic rock of music history’. Continue reading