“Sometimes the symphonies … are destined to showcase the musicians’ talents” – a music dictionary of the time thus commented on a new genre, the “Symphonie concertante”. The playful competition between the solo instruments proved very popular with the audience and sparked rivalry between the concert organizers in the music metropolis London: Ignaz Pleyel received a great deal of praise for one such “concertante” and only four weeks later Haydn achieved great fame for Hob. I:105. This attractive work is now published in piano reduction so that it can be played without orchestral accompaniment.
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
