G-Henle

(American Quartet)-After a twelve-year interval Dvo ák once again turned his attention to the String Quartet in summer 1893. He had been musical director in New York since autumn 1892 and spent the summer in Spillville (Iowa) where agroup of Czech immigrants had settled thus making him feel at home. The beautiful natural surroundings led him to write this unconventional String Quartet in the tradition of Beethoven?s ?Pastoral? even down to the imitation ofbirdcalls. Since the first performances certain rhythmic and melodic characteristics have been traced back to the influences of the folk music of Native Americans and African Americans which led to the soon popular workbeing called the ?American Quartet?. For the first time since 1955 the Quartet is once again being published in an Urtext edition.

With this cornerstone of the Double Bass repertoire we continue a still young but important part of our catalogue. This musically-charming work full of technical trickery is with justification demanded time and again as atest piece or set piece for competitions. In order to accommodate the ?Viennese tuning? used at the time we also provide a solo part in fret notation. The Piano part in D major and E major (!) can be used to accompany the DoubleBass part either in its solo or orchestral version. As an alternative to the familiar cadenzas by Sperger editor Tobias Glöckler has added two further tuneful and stylistically-appropriate cadenzas of his own.

24 Préludes-Based on the Prélude in C sharp minor Op. 3 No. 2 written in 1892 that quickly became world-famous Rachmaninoff composed a further two collections of Préludes in the years up to 1910. These were also published as acomplete volume in 1911.Based on the corresponding models by Chopin Scriabin and their great forerunner J.S. Bach they comprise a cycle of 24 Préludes in all major and minor keys but unlike the other onesare not organised systematically according to keys. A final highlight of late Romantic Piano music which no pianist can ignore.

Johannes Brahms’s Piano Quintet is not only one of the mightiest works in its genre but also a climax in his chamber music oeuvre. This new volume adopts the definitive text from the New CompleteEdition of Brahms’s Works.

Very few musicians are aware of the fact that Beethoven arranged his Violin concerto also as a Piano Concerto. It is only recently that some pianists have discovered this truly rewarding work.Clementi the London composer and publisher had heard about the première of the Violin concerto and probably sensed its potential. He asked Beethoven for a Piano version which was actually also published in 1808 at thesame time as the original. Several important cadenzas had been especially composed for it; the one for the first movement is accompanied by the Timpani a unique and original touch! Our edition (Piano reduction and study score)contains the text from the recently published volume in the Complete Edition of Beethoven’s Works.

Klavierauszug-Now the Concertino and the First Clarinet Concerto are about to be followed by Weber?s Second Concerto in E-Flat Major edited by Norbert Gertsch. Once again the Piano reduction contrasts the originalsolo part with the widely known version by Carl Bärmann (both parts are separately enclosed). The accompanying preface offers a detailed explanation of the importance of both versions and how they interrelate.

(Op. 44 37 38 39 48)-À l?époque classique et pendant une grande partie du 19e siècle les trios avec piano constituaient en quelque sorte des articles de mode. Il n?est donc pas surprenant qu?après Haydn et Mozart Beethoven se soit lui aussi essayé à ce genre et ait laissé en tout 13 trios avec piano. Les ?uvres contenues dans ce volume III présentent presque toutes de petites particularités: l?op. 44 n?est pas un trio à part entière mais se compose d?un unique mouvement de variations le WoO 37 fut écrit alors que Beethoven se trouvait encore à Bonn et se distingue par son instrumentation (piano flûte et basson) le WoO 39 fut écrit pour la petite Maximiliane fille de la famille Brentano «pourl?encourager à jouer du piano» l?op. 38 est une adaptation pour piano clarinette et violoncelle du septuor op. 20 et le dernier morceau n?est parvenu à la postérité que sous la forme figurant dans le cahier d?esquisses utilisé par Beethoven lorsqu?il était à Bonn. Aucune de ces ?uvres n?a l?envergure de ses grands trios avec piano mais elles restent néanmoins des témoins de son grand art.

String Quartets Book III op. 17-The autograph score of the Quartets op. 17 was in the possession of the imperial police chief Johann Nepomuk Neuwirth whose widow gave it to the Wiener Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in 1875. It is said that Haydn ?used to playthe viola in quartet rehearsals? at the Neuwirth?s house. Whether the Quartets op. 17 were composed for these gatherings can no longer be ascertained. However even today they still have a fixed place amongst the music of allchamber music friends and in particular nos. 4 5 and 6 which are very different to the divertimento style of the early quartets are played again and again.

Piano Quartets-Il est fort regrettable que Beethoven n?ait composé que quatre quatuors avec piano car ces quatre opus font partie des ?uvres les plus appréciées du genre. Trois d?entre eux les quatuors WoO 36 furent composés alors que Beethoven était encore à Bonn et comptent parmi ses meilleures ?uvres de jeunesse. Bien qu?ils soient encore animés de l?esprit mozartien ils por-tent déjà la patte personnelle de Beethoven. La réutilisation du mouvement lent du troisième quatuor dans sa première sonate pour piano op. 2 no 1 témoigne de l?affection que le compositeur continua à leur porter par la suite. Le quatrième quatuor est une autre version du quintette avec instruments à vent op.16.

Violin Sonata no. 2 e minor op. 108-Fauré?s 2nd Violin Sonata was written in 1916 in Evian and Paris the first in a series of chamber music works. It is thus one of Faure?s late works characterised by austerity introspectionand the intensity of its expression.It is hard to imagine a greater contrast to the brilliant and ornamental style of the virtuosic 1st Violin Sonata (HN 980) published 40 years earlier. The 2nd Sonata concentrates on theessentials and on closer contact turns out to be a fascinating composition that harmonically explores the limits of tonality delving deep into the ?Modernism? of the 1920s.

Les sonates en solo composées en Italie à partir des premières décennies du 17e siècle se distinguent par leur virtuosité instrumentale et l?originalité de la pensée baroque dont elles sont traversées. Ces deux aspects ont été pris en compte dans le choix des morceaux figurant dans cette série fascinante de recueils de musique italienne pour violon de la période baroque. Outre des sonates pour violon des maîtres italiens Arcangelo Corelli Antonio Vivaldi et Tomaso Albinoni le second volume de cette collection propose également la possibilité de découvrir des compositeurs encore méconnus notamment Carlo Farina et Michel Mascitti qui ont été les émissaires de la musiqueitalienne pour violon en Allemagne et en France. L?édition urtext permet une vision claire de quelques-uns des bijoux de la période baroque.

Brahms h?sita longtemps avant d??crire un concerto de soliste pour un instrument dont il ne ma?trisait que tr?s peu la technique. C?est pourquoi lorsqu?il composa son concerto pour violon et orchestre op. 77 dans les ann?es 1877/1878 ce fut en collaboration ?troite avec son ami Joseph Joachim qui est ?galement l?auteur de la cadence. Ses contemporains accueillirent l??uvre avec enthousiasme et elle reste consid?r?e aujourd?hui comme une pi?ce majeure du r?pertoire. Une ?dition urtext dans un petit format maniable destin? ? l??tude s?av?re par cons?quent tr?s utile. Reposant sur la partition parue dans la nouvelle ?dition compl?te des ?uvres de Brahms elle contient?galement en annexe la cadence de Joachim dans deux versions diff?rentes: d?une part la version originale et d?autre part une version tr?s int?ressante plus condens?e mise au point par Brahms ult?rieurement avec la violoniste Marie Soldat.

String Quartet F major op. 135-Beethoven’s Op. 135 one of the last works he composed is equally famous for its compositional clarity and for the inadequacy of previous editions. The problem lies in the surviving sources forBeethoven’s autograph score contains a great many contradictions compared to his autograph set of parts. In 1827 after Beethoven’s death the German publisher of the first edition posthumously ironed out thesediscrepancies as he saw fit and later editions simply adopted his interventions. Rainer Cadenbach’s volume is the first attempt to produce an authoritative text for Op. 135. Beethoven’s contradictoryformulations are laid bare allowing musicians to make their own decisions.