With its appealing opening melody, this piece is widely known and beloved under the title Andante favori. It was written as the slow movement of the famous “Waldstein” Piano Sonata in C major, op. 53. Beethoven’s student and later biographer Ferdinand Ries reported that a friend had voiced his view about “the sonata being too long,” whereupon the friend was given a terrible talking-to (by Beethoven). But “Having had time for more placid reflection, my teacher [i.e. Beethoven] soon became convinced of the correctness of the comment.” Luckily for today’s pianists, Beethoven did not discard the piece completely, but had it published as a single movement in 1805. The title Andante favori made its first appearance in a print that was released one year later.
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
