After moving to Vienna in 1781, Mozart returned only once to his hometown of Salzburg, and that was from the end of July to the end of October 1783 in the company of his young wife Constanze. Just as we know little for certain about the events of those months, Mozart also seems to have composed equally little there. Just these two exquisite duos for violin and viola come from this period, and even they were apparently written as a friendly favour for Salzburg composer Michael Haydn (younger brother of the great Joseph Haydn), who for reasons of acute ill health was unable to complete a commissioned composition. Henle’s Urtext edition is based on the carefully notated autograph manuscripts; the first edition appeared only in 1792, shortly after Mozart’s death, making its value as a source debatable. In addition to a complete score of this wonderfully intimate chamber music, foldout instrumental parts are included, facilitating comfortable performance.
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
