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
Joseph Joachim is considered one of the most important violinists of the second half of the nineteenth century. By contrast, his indeed small but at the time highly regarded compositional work is hardly known today. Unjustly so, as shown by the Variations on an Original Theme op. 10, which was admired by Brahms. The work was composed in 1854 in connection with Joachim’s unrequited love for the authoress Gisela von Arnim, to whom he erected a monument employing musical symbolism in the opening theme gis1–e1–a1 (g-sharp–e–a; a = Italian la). The theme, performed by the piano alone, is followed by ten variations that demonstrate an immense diversity of derivations – in terms of melody, harmony and, above all, rhythm – from the simple basic idea.
At the suggestion of world-renowned violist Tabea Zimmermann – who also contributed fingerings and bowings – this delightful work appears for the first time in an Urtext edition, edited by Joachim specialist Christoph Arta on the basis of all available sources. A real insider tip for the viola, which is not so abundantly blessed with original compositions!
