C minor is traditionally the key of drama, passion, pathos, and pain, which also applies here in Mozart’s famous C minor sonata K. 457. He wrote it in October 1784, though what might have triggered this incredible outpouring of a “romantic” world of feeling is unknown. Half a year later, Mozart composed his C minor fantasy K. 475, an extraordinary work in every regard. Both of these C minor works were published together in one edition in 1785, meaning that they were intentionally linked together by their author, counter to convention.
Until 1990 the autograph manuscripts of the Fantasy and Sonata in C minor were lost, and G. Henle Verlag were the first to undertake a thorough revision of the texts immediately following their re-emergence in Philadelphia, USA, at that time. In many instances, corrections had to be made to the musical text as previously known, because the most important sources up to that point – the first edition, as well as an authorized dedication copy of the sonata – proved to be imprecise and erroneous. Even an “Urtext” can occasionally be improved.
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