In the 19th century, Nicolò Paganini was the embodiment of the virtuoso. Many composers used his musical themes for their own creative work. Johannes Brahms likewise did not hesitate to use a work by Paganini the violin virtuoso as the basis for a composition for his own instrument, the piano, using the Capriccio no. 24 in a minor from Paganini’s op. 1 as his model. Brahms initially viewed the Variations, composed in 1862/63, merely as a “finger exercise” for himself, and had no intention of publishing them. After several years he fortunately decided otherwise, and thus with this Urtext edition pianists who are Brahms aficionados can enjoy an unusual virtuoso masterpiece. In contrast to the variations on the same theme by Chopin, Schumann and Liszt, those by Brahms offer a much richer, more novel spectrum of pianistic variations. Whether players find them to be “witches’ variations”, as did Clara Schumann, is a matter for them.
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
