n 1884 Grieg composed a suite in Baroque style on the occasion of the 200th birthday of the poet Ludvig Holberg, who was very well-known in Norway. Taking inspiration from Holberg’s time there are dances and forms from Baroque music here - Präludium, Sarabande, Gavotte, Air and Rigaudon. But they are combined with the melodic and harmonic language of the 19th century, and with Grieg’s characteristic compositional style. In this way the music achieves the charming mix that is the reason for its popularity. Even though the string orchestra version is better known today, Grieg first wrote the work for piano. The fingering prepared for this Urtext edition helps to open up the dense and often polyphonic piano-writing.
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
