Combining these two Schumann bestsellers seemed very natural: both of the titles not only reflect their inner association but the technical demands on the pianist are for once not so great (see the levels of difficulty). And both works are collections of more-or-less short, succinct pieces that ever since their publication (in 1839 and 1848) were to “profoundly influence middle-class musical culture in the second half of the 19th century. To this day, they have lost hardly any of their appeal” (Ernst Herttrich in the preface).
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
