SKU: BR.PB-16105

The study score (,,Studien-Edition) is available at G. Henle Verlag.

ISBN 9790004214329. 10 x 12.5 inches.

Johannes Brahms was long reluctant to compete with Beethoven in the field of symphonic music. With his D-major Serenade in six movements, the young composer deliberately chose a genre that had had its golden era in the 18th century, thus before Beethoven. Initially, he even conceived the Serenade for a smaller setting, but decided on a full orchestra in 1860. But even then, it was slow in becoming an audience success.The new Brahms Complete Edition has chosen as its principal source a copy of the scores first edition that Brahms used as his personal work copy. There, however, errors remained undiscovered, and recurred in later print runs as well. It was not until the new Brahms Edition that a music text of the D-major Serenade is finally being published, a text that clearly heeds all of the composers emendations and eliminates other shortcomings.

SKU: BR.PB-14610

The study score (,,Studien-Edition) is available at G. Henle Verlag.

ISBN 9790004211144. 10 x 12.5 inches.

Beethoven did not work continuously on this symphony and interrupted his work a couple of times. As the sketches show, he presumably wrote down first ideas in the autumn of 1800.No other autograph material has survived. As Ferdinand Ries, a pupil of Beethoven, bitterly reports, Beethoven gave him the autograph, but it was unfortunately stolen by a friend, out of pure friendship. In April 1803, the composition was premiered publicly, together with the first symphony and the third piano concerto with Beethoven himself as soloist. Although Beethoven's first two symphonies are still influenced by Haydn and Mozart, novelties can already be discovered. The second symphony starts breaking away from traditional forms and lets us surmise the monumentality of Beethoven's innovation. The editor, Armin Raab, critically illuminates the transmission of the work and its sources. He also clears up a wide spread belief in older literature, that this cheerful work might have been composed parallel to the Heiligenstadter Testament. The practical performance material by Breitkopf & Hartel is based on the music text of the New Beethoven Complete Edition and constitutes the authoritative reading of Beethoven research.

SKU: BR.PB-5247-07

This edition is extremely thorough and explanatory notes are clear making this a good place to start a study of the work. (Sheet Music)

ISBN 9790004209622. 6.5 x 9 inches.

Franz Schubert wrote the two movements of the Unfinished Symphony in October 1822. The torso has since been posing riddles to posterity, which first learned of the existence of this masterpiece in 1865 through the simultaneous first edition and world-premiere performance. There seems to have been no external reason for its creation. Did Schubert really consider the piece only as an experiment that did not warrant any continuation? It should be noted, however, that Schubert sketched the Scherzo up to the beginning of the Trio, and even fully orchestrated nine measures of this movement.