Urtext Edition

This small volume comprises three variation cycles of Beethoven's which are brought together in Urtext editions that are technically fairly easy to master (level of difficulty 3-5). Two of them, the V...

Like the 'Eroica Variations' op. 35, the Variations op. 34, were composed in 1802 on an original theme. The 'new fashion' Beethoven declared for both works to his publisher becomes apparent in opus 34...

After his 15 Hungarian peasant songs (HN1404), these Improvisations on Hungarian peasant songs are the second of Bartók's works to feature the words 'Hungarian peasant songs' in their title. The manne...

Arnold Schönberg's Piano Pieces op. 11 are a milestone in the development of piano music. Schönberg had also already composed other atonal works, but always for voice with sung text. By contrast the P...

Schönberg's Suite op. 25 of 1923 refers to pre-classical forms in its movement titles Präludium, Gavotte-Musette, Intermezzo, Menuett-Trio and Gigue, yet at the same time it was the first work to be...

Franz Schubert’s Piano Sonata op. 143 in a minor was composed in February 1823 following his large “Wanderer Fantasy”. With its formal coherence and mature originality, the a-minor Sonata initiated a...

Liszt understood a "rhapsody" to signify the highest degree of musical freedom: a constant process of transformation and variation of themes and motifs, all bound up with constant shifts of emotion. A...

Bach's French Suites are among his most popular keyboard works, and are also much used as teaching material. This was already the case at the time of their composition, so that today a vast number of...

Selections of individual numbers or scenes from large-scale stage works have always been a tried and tested means of making operas or incidental music accessible to a wider audience. Thus, even before...

In the second volume, Italie, published in 1858, of the three-part Années de pèlerinage the great names of Italian art and poetry occupy centre stage. Among these was also Petrarch and his collection...

Charles Valentin Alkan focused his work entirely on the piano, and one can hardly fill the page more densely with notes than Alkan did. With that he numbers among the breakneck piano virtuosos who lef...

The Eight Etudes op. 42 by Alexander Scriabin were composed during a phase of great productivity. For many years, teaching commitments had hampered the composer. Gradually, he was able to dispose of t...

Isaac Albéniz understood his "Iberia Suite" as "Spanish music with a universal touch". He succeeded perfectly with the colourful piano cycle, even though at the end, plagued by serious illness, he had...

After the publication of his Bagatelles op. 33 in 1803, Beethoven returned to this genre again only twenty years later. The stimulus came from outside, twice:: on the one hand, he received a request i...

In contrast to the Bagatelles op. 119, the Bagatelles op. 126, composed in 1824, were planned as a cycle from the outset. What these new bagatelles have in common are a basic tripartite form and the h...

Completed in 1912 and published already that same year, these Three Etudes op. 65 are assigned to Scriabin’s final creative period. Tonally, they arguably number among the composer’s most original and...

Bach's Six Partitas form what is presumably the most famous and challenging collection of suites in music history. Bach was aware of the weightiness of his cycle as he initially had these multi-moveme...

The "English Suites" number among the pinnacles of keyboard literature. They strike a magnificent tone that provides an impressive picture of the virtuosic and sumptuous harpsichord style that Bach ha...

The "English Suites" number among the pinnacles of keyboard literature. They strike a magnificent tone that provides an impressive picture of the virtuosic and sumptuous harpsichord style that Bach ha...

The eleventh Hungarian Rhapsody, published in 1853, is based on four themes of Hungarian character whose origins have not yet been determined: Liszt may have noted them down by ear during his trip to...

The "English Suites" number among the pinnacles of keyboard literature. They strike a magnificent tone that provides an impressive picture of the virtuosic and sumptuous harpsichord style that Bach ha...

Throughout his life Mozart composed individual pieces for the keyboard. This wealth of material offers us an exceptional insight into his musical development. For the first time ever, we are now offer...

Apart from the major cycles (partitas, French and English suites), a whole series of separate keyboard suites by Bach have come down to us, including individual sonatas or sonata movements, variations...

With this E-minor piano sonata, Classical-era composer Haydn created a work that displays positively romantic traits. Agitation and excitement are expressed in the main ideas of the first movement, wh...

The work was originally intended as part of the Suite bergamasque (HN 381), like L'Isle joyeuse (HN 386). Yet in the end Debussy chose other pieces for the Suite, and published Masques and L'Isle joye...