As Henle’s Ravel year is being organised under the heading “Ravel and Friends”, Claude Debussy is no doubt one of the most important composers with whom Maurice Ravel maintained personal contact, though their relationship was not unclouded. So, we’ve asked the French musicologist Denis Herlin, one of the world’s top Debussy specialists, about some aspects of this interesting, yet also complex association.
left: Claude Debussy, right: Maurice Ravel
Anniversaries of great composers cast long shadows. This applies not only to the recording industry, when some ensembles labour for decades to perfectly capture recordings of the complete symphonies or cantatas for a Haydn or Bach anniversary, but also to music publishers. So, it’s no coincidence that for the Ravel Year 2025 we recently celebrated in this blog, we largely completed our catalogue of the French composer’s works, or that all Beethoven’s symphonies were available in the Henle Urtext in time for his 250th birthday in 2020. But that doesn’t happen overnight. And thus, the Schubert year 2028, only slowly appearing now on the horizon, has been on our minds for quite some time. Continue reading
Last year the Henle catalogue very much 
welcomed the addition of Sergei Prokofiev, with the number of our editions of his works growing steadily ever since (see here). The latest new release is sure to make all violinists’ hearts beat faster: The 2nd Violin Sonata in D major op. 94a, an integral part of the violin repertoire, is now available for the first time in a reliable Urtext edition (HN 1624). Continue reading
Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
Like last year, 2025 will also see a wealth of composer commemorations, ranging from Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (500th birthday) to Georges Bizet (150th anniversary of his death) or from Erik Satie (100th anniversary of his death) to Pierre Boulez (100th birthday), to name just a few of the anniversaries. The spotlight will undoubtedly be, however, on the milestone birthday of Maurice Ravel, born on 7 March 1875 in the French-Basque commune Ciboure to a Spanish-Basque mother and a Swiss-engineer father with French roots. The family moved to Paris just three months later, though Ravel never lost his connection to the Basque region where he often spent the summer months in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, a neighbouring commune to Ciboure. Continue reading
Exactly one year ago, when Christmas 2023 was just at the door, I (Andreas Pernpeintner) was also faced with the decision of whether or not to enter the Henle publishing house as an editor. Both came to pass, Henle and Christmas. People around me at the time asked whether AI would soon make the profession of music editor redundant. There’s no way of knowing, but the feeling of soon being virtually replaceable has yet to materialise. Of course, it would make no sense to refuse AI. Online translators are a blessing. Setting digital music notation without intelligent scan recognition software would be a time-consuming business. ChatGPT can help with research questions (but then, subsequently, be sure to fact-check) – or when preparing for the Henle Christmas party, where the ‘Henliden Chorus’ is traditionally heard. This is not a vocal sister work to the ‘Hebrides Overture’, but the entire singing publishing-house staff. One of the most amusing ways of using ChatGPT is to produce literary works according to certain content and stylistic guidelines. This is how, quickly, to succeed with a possible Henle Christmas party hit 2024: Continue reading
On the left Maurice Ravel at the Paris Conservatoire 1895
When you’re new to an enterprise, it’s very agreeable when your colleagues kindly prepare the ground for you. The idea of placing the manageable Sérénade grotesque by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) on my desk as my first edition when I joined the G. Henle publishing house was thus a sign of great caring and attention – and served at most secondarily to test me a bit on how I go through all the steps involved in producing an Urtext edition of this piece within a relatively short time. What nobody suspected was that the piece would soon turn out to be a bit of devilry, coping with it requiring the entire editorial toolkit. Although the source comparison can be largely limited to the autograph and the posthumous first edition, the two texts are overflowing with different readings needing to be brought under control. Continue reading
Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924)
Which compositions are associated with Gabriel Fauré? For certain, the Requiem and probably the Pavane as well as the orchestral suites Pelléas et Mélisande and Masques et Bergamasques, also some chamber music works such as the first Violin Sonata in A major op. 13, the Berceuse op. 16, the Élégie op. 24 or the Sicilienne op. 78 – but beyond that? Considering his complete oeuvre of some 200 works, it is no exaggeration to speak of Fauré as a largely unknown composer, even if every classical music fan is likely to be familiar with his name. He belongs to the group of composers increasingly overshadowed by their contemporaries. That the new French music of the 20th century’s first two decades is so firmly linked with the names Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel has obscured the view of other pioneers of this new music – of which to this day, Fauré is undoubtedly one. Continue reading
Mozart, Violin Concerto D-major, K. 218,
ed. by Ferdinand David,
A-Sm Rara 218/5
As Urtext editors, we could sometimes despair: we’re offering the music world a reliable music text, but those for whom all our work is devoted go on ignoring the new findings in their playing and teaching.
You’d like an example? I recently heard a young, very talented Korean violinist play Mozart’s D-major Concerto, K. 218 (HN 680). Apart from the fact that he unfortunately dispensed with the ‘common sense’ standard, at least in historically informed performance practice, of playing the tutti passages and conducting the orchestra as primarius, we heard in detail all those little note errors and subjective editorial additions ultimately going back to Ferdinand David’s first edition of 1865. Continue reading
For me, this Arnold Schönberg quotation expresses the composer’s attitude towards music – not just towards his own, but towards music in general. The seriousness with which he was striving for truth in music is without parallel. The fact that this attitude also meant a certain lack of compromise will be further discussed below…
In a few days the world will be celebrating Arnold Schönberg’s 150th birthday – and the G. Henle publishing house will of course also be joining the celebration! Reason enough to pause for a moment to highlight Schönberg’s significance for our catalogue. Continue reading
Fans of so-called ‘true crime’ 
formats, reporting, that is, about real criminal cases, know only too well what a major role chance plays in solving crimes. Clues leading nowhere are followed for weeks or months – but then a cross-connection emerges that becomes a hot lead. Or when witnesses are re-questioned, a previously unknown or unnoticed detail turns up, shedding new light on the course of events. In any case, there is often talk of ‘Inspector Fortuity’ when it comes to the breakthrough in solving a criminal case. Although the Henle editorial team’s source research cannot be compared with detective investigations, there are contact points in that sometimes a detective instinct is needed to make the decisive query. Or even – and this is what we’ll be discussing below – Inspector Fortuity is deployed. Continue reading