With Frédéric Chopin’s Fantaisie-Impromptu in c-sharp minor, G. Henle Verlag presents a further Urtext separate issue from among the most popular works of this central composer of romantic piano music. This ear-worm is “romantic” in the best sense: stormy, iridescent cascades produced by refined rhythms surround the hymn-like melody of the middle section. It is hardly surprising that Chopin fans easily end up rhapsodizing! What is surprising, however, is that the piece, still so popular today, is untitled in the source materials, and was not published until after the composer’s death. Moreover, there exist two versions; we print them both in our individual Urtext edition, which makes it easier to compare them with one another.
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
