Joseph Haydn’s concertos for violoncello and orchestra stand out for their lightness and elegance. The Concerto in C major Hob. VIIb:1 was most likely written between 1762 and 1765, when Haydn was already in service as Kapellmeister, or music director, to Prince Esterházy. The concerto was for a long time known only through an entry by Haydn in his handwritten catalogue of works, and the music itself was unknown. It was not until 1961 that a copy of the work was found, and since then it has successfully held its own against the Concerto in D major Hob. VII:2. The services of Haydn specialist Sonja Gerlach have been obtained for this edition of the concerto with piano accompaniment. She enriches the Urtext edition with a detailed preface that also examines focuses on the execution of the ornaments and the cadenzas.
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
