How to drive the devil out of a waltz or: Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz for everybody?

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Norbert Gertsch

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 →

Posted in arrangement, Liszt, Franz, Mephisto Waltz (Liszt), Monday Postings, piano solo, versions | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

On the lookout for the lost measure: Bach’s C-major Prelude from the Well-Tempered Clavier I

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Norbert Müllemann

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 →

Posted in autograph, Bach, Johann Sebastian, copy, Monday Postings, piano solo, Urtext, Well-Tempered Clavier (J.S. Bach) | Tagged , , , | 24 Comments

The “Creation” starting from scratch: Joseph Haydn’s sketches in the Complete Edition

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Annette Oppermann

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 →

Posted in chorus + orchestra, Creation (Haydn), genesis, Haydn, Joseph, Monday Postings, sketches | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Curiosity pays off. The genesis of Maurice Ravel’s piano ‘Sonatine’

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Peter Jost

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 →

Posted in genesis, Monday Postings, piano solo, Piano Sonatina (Ravel), Ravel, Maurice | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

How an original Mozart A flat escaped from the dust. On the slow movement of the C- minor Piano Sonata K. 457

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Wolf-Dieter Seiffert

Very vividly I recall the Mozart sensation of the year 1990: In Philadelphia a librarian discovered a Mozart autograph while dusting. Continue reading →

Posted in autograph, first edition, Monday Postings, Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, piano solo, revision, Urtext, variant reading | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

How the (cradle) song ends: what is the final tone of Fauré’s Berceuse?

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Dominik Rahmer

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 →

Posted in Berceuse op. 16 (Fauré), Fauré, Gabriel, first edition, Monday Postings, notation, piano + violin | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

So, how much bass do you want? Beethoven’s Sextet Op. 81b

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Annette Oppermann

Wouldn’t you wonder, too, if you saw a sextet on a concert programme, and then seven musicians came out on the stage? That’s exactly what happens to many people when they open our Urtext edition of Beethoven’s Sextet op. 81b for 2 Horns and Strings (HN 955). For here besides the horn parts they find not four but five string parts – and with good reason: Continue reading →

Posted in Beethoven, Ludwig van, first edition, Instrumentation, Monday Postings, Sextet op. 81b (Beethoven) | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

“La dernière pensée musicale de Chopin” – a Sham?

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Norbert Müllemann

Mystery swirls around Chopin’s Mazurka in f minor, op. post. 68, No. 4. Is this really the ‘Master’s last inspiration’? Continue reading →

Posted in Chopin, Frédéric, Mazurka op. post. 68 nr. 4 (Chopin), Monday Postings, piano solo, sketches, versions | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Sometimes you have to dig deeper! Or: What the violist should really play in Hoffmeister’s concerto.

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Norbert Gertsch

Most violists groan whenever the names Hoffmeister and Stamitz are mentioned. Too often, and over and over again, they have to spend time on these solo concertos under enormous pressure to succeed. Hardly any audition for an orchestra position takes place without one of the concertos (mostly only the opening of the 1st movement) having to be performed with piano accompaniment in the first elimination round. Continue reading →

Posted in articulation, copy, dynamics, Hoffmeister, Franz Anton, Monday Postings, piano + viola, Urtext, versions, Viola Concerto (Hoffmeister) | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Missing bass octave in Debussy’s Prélude “Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest”?

Posted on December 26, 2011 by Peter Jost

Whether the Pope is infallible is anybody’s guess, but composers are certainly not – as can be proven by some of the mistakes in their autographs. Continue reading →

Posted in autograph, Debussy, Claude, first edition, Monday Postings, piano solo, Préludes (Debussy), reprint, variant reading | Tagged , , | 1 Comment