Variations on a well-liked theme, mainly from contemporary operas, were extremely popular at the end of the 18th century. Even the young Beethoven made several contributions to this genre.
We do not know of any concrete occasion for the composition of the three cycles of Variations for Violoncello and Piano – they are on two themes from Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” and one from Handel’s oratorio “Judas Maccabaeus”. The number of reproductions at that time does, however, reveal that they were very popular right from the beginning. Our revision is based on new findings contained in the Critical Report of the Beethoven Complete Edition.
G. Henle Publishers stands for Urtext sheet music of the highest quality. The Urtext editions not only provide the undistorted and authoritative musical text but are also aesthetically pleasing, optimised for practical use and extremely durable. And then there is the strong, distinctive blue profile: (almost) all of the Urtext editions are bound in the characteristic blue cardboard.
Musicians trust Henle's blue Urtext editions because they:
- provide an undistorted, reliable and authoritative musical text
- offer superb, aesthetically appealing music engraving
- are optimised for practical use (page turns, fingerings)
- are of high quality and durable (cover, paper, binding)
- contain a short preface that introduces the work (particularly useful for AMEB exams) in German, English and French, as well as explanatory footnotes for particularly interesting passages in the score
- contain a description of the sources, an evaluation of the sources, readings and a documentation of the corrections made (= "Critical Report") in German and English, and often also in French
