For almost ten years now I’ve been working with Murray Perahia as co-editor of a new edition of Ludwig van Beethoven’s piano sonatas. Ten sonatas have appeared meanwhile, and I promise you it won’t take another twenty years to get the other sonatas ready!
Among the already published sonatas is that in G major op. 14 no. 2 (Sonata ‘No. 10’ in case you’d rather count them). Continue reading
At first sight Urtext editions of Satie’s piano music do not seem to pose any great challenge. Continue reading
Tabea Zimmermann, the fabulous violist, writes: Continue reading
In summer 1915 in the solitude of Pourville, the small seaside resort in Normandy, Claude Debussy finished his last major piano work, Douze Études pour le piano. To the 12 etudes in the printed edition that appeared the following year, he prefixed a somewhat curious comment in his inimitable style. Continue reading
It’s still ringing in your ears, this warhorse for orchestra or for a pianist. Doesn’t it – when convincingly interpreted – almost drive you crazy with its wild, diabolical tempo, its sensual surge in the slow middle part? And now honestly, for once: Can you even whistle a tune from Liszt’s Faust symphony? Continue reading
Those in the know among our readers will be aware that wandering through the music world like a ghost is an extra measure at the famous opening of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier I. It goes by the name of ‘Schwencke measure’. Continue reading
It is probably well enough known that in the G. Henle publishing house there are not only the blue Urtext editions, but also major complete-edition volumes of works by Haydn, Beethoven and Brahms. Ultimately, in fact, these volumes also reliably ground our practical editions of these composers. But you may not have already realized that in these volumes, alongside the scores of all a composer’s works, you can also find earlier versions and even sketches – and perhaps many of you will even wonder what music sketches really are and for what reason they are published in a complete edition? Continue reading
In 2011 when I began preparing a new edition of Maurice Ravel’s piano Sonatine, I could not have imagined that I would discover anything new. Continue reading
Very vividly I recall the Mozart sensation of the year 1990: In Philadelphia a librarian discovered a Mozart autograph while dusting. Continue reading
Gabriel Fauré’s Berceuse op. 16, a captivating miniature for violin and piano, is hardly a problematic piece from an editorial standpoint. There is, however, one detail here that at second glance can cause a bit of a headache. Continue reading