Time and again, Chopin succeeded in giving different piano music genres their own individual characters, whether etudes, preludes, waltzes, scherzi or nocturnes. The Irishman John Field had already composed over 20 nocturnes, which presumably greatly influenced Chopin. The latter continued to develop the light, song-like piano writing and created works whose dreamy, longing atmosphere came to embody Chopin’s music. Our volume contains the works that were published during Chopin’s lifetime as well as ones which were only published posthumously, including the famous Lento con gran espressione in c sharp minor – in two authentic versions.
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
