The variation genre occupied Beethoven his whole artistic life. Collected in the second volume of G. Henle Publishers’ complete edition of piano variations are compositions from his middle and later Vienna years written between 1799 and 1823. Among them are groundbreaking works such as the two sets of variations on original themes opp. 34 and 35, the Variations in C minor WoO 80, and, as the final crown jewel, the Diabelli Variations op. 120. The revised musical text of the Urtext edition, with an extensive foreword and commentary, was prepared on the basis of the subsequent Critical Apparatus of the Beethoven Complete Edition. The fingering suggestions stem from the competent hand of Ian Fountain.
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