“Miroirs” – Ravel dedicated each of these five piano pieces to a member of the Parisian artistic circle “Les Apaches”. Ravel also belonged to this circle of poets, painters and musicians, giving first performances of many of his works at gatherings of this illustrious group.
In “Miroirs” he went a step further than in “Jeux d’eau”. The music was to sound as if it came from a sketchbook. The bold harmony irritated his contemporaries at first but pointed the way ahead for Ravel’s subsequent works. This famous cycle – it also contains the well-known “Alborada del gracioso” – is now available in Henle Urtext in a particularly clear and larger format with an extensive commentary.
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
