Debussy composed this work in summer 1880 in Fiesole, Italy, when he was 18 years old. At the time he was the musical travelling companion of Nadescha von Meck, Tschaikowsky’s famous patroness. Most of the autograph material was thought to have been lost and was only discovered over 100 years later, in 1982, in the estate of Debussy’s pupil Maurice Dumesnil. When Henle published the first edition in 1986, the music world welcomed the trio with open arms. Ensembles rushed to play it, and numerous recordings followed. Although formal conventions prevail, the work displays a melodic freshness as well as inflections and phrases that are typical of Debussy.
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
