{"id":3980,"date":"2016-10-31T09:51:04","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T08:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.henle.de\/blog\/en\/?p=3980"},"modified":"2016-10-31T09:49:35","modified_gmt":"2016-10-31T08:49:35","slug":"at-full-length-%e2%80%93-finally-an-urtext-edition-of-tchaikovsky%e2%80%99s-unabridged-valse-scherzo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/2016\/10\/31\/at-full-length-%e2%80%93-finally-an-urtext-edition-of-tchaikovsky%e2%80%99s-unabridged-valse-scherzo\/","title":{"rendered":"At full length \u2013 finally, an Urtext edition of Tchaikovsky\u2019s unabridged Valse-Scherzo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tchaikovsky and the violin \u2013 surely everyone first thinks here of his splendid violin concerto, long since available, of course, in the Henle Urtext edition (HN 685<\/a>). But violinists also love his other, smaller works for violin and piano now being gradually added to our catalogue in reliable Urtext editions.<\/p>\n

The fact that precise philological effort is also worthwhile for these supposedly \u201cless imposing\u201d works can be seen exemplarily in the case of the Valse-Scherzo<\/em> op. 34. Tchaikovsky wrote this sparklingly witty virtuoso piece in 1877 for the violinist Josef Kotek, a close friend and pupil.<\/p>\n

In the preface<\/a> to our edition (HN 1273<\/a>), our editor Alexander Komarov, the Russian Tchaikovsky specialist, knowledgeably describes the intricate history of the work\u2019s genesis and documents it with many quotations from previously unpublished letters. For his edition he has drawn on all the printed editions appearing during the composer\u2019s lifetime (autograph sources are lost).<\/p>\n

Comparing the first edition during the editorial process with modern editions currently found on the market revealed something amazing: virtually none of these new scores reproduces the original music text of the first edition, retaining not even two thirds of its original length, and the violin part shows countless differences. How could this happen?<\/p>\n

The \u201cculprit\u201d is the Russian violinist Wassili Besekirski who published his arrangement of the Valse-Scherzo<\/em> as early as 1914 with the Moscow publisher P. Jurgenson. Besekirski, probably well-intentioned and wanting to make the work of 569 measures \u201cmore digestible\u201d, shortened the piece to 332 measures, radically slashing the reprise especially, though also making cuts in many other spots. At the same time, Besekirski altered the violin part at many places by adding double stops, octaves, etc., to show it to advantage more effectively in a virtuoso manner. Several examples:<\/p>\n

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Arrangement Besekirski<\/p><\/div>\n

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Urtext<\/p><\/div>\n

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Arrangement Besekirski<\/p><\/div>\n

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Urtext<\/p><\/div>\n

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Arrangement Besekirski<\/p><\/div>\n

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Urtext<\/p><\/div>\n

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Cadenza Besekirski<\/p><\/div>\n

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Urtext (Cadenza Tschaikowsky)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Besekirski edition was so influential that many of the classic audio recordings of the work rely on this abridged arrangement and so have given a wrong impression of Tchaikovsky\u2019s composition right down to the present day. Among these, for instance, is also the reference recording by David Oistrakh:<\/p>\n