In memory of the deceased illustrator and architect Viktor A. Hartmann (1834–1873), an exhibition of his watercolours and drawings was organised in 1874. Modest Mussorgsky, who had been Hartmann’s friend, was inspired by his visit to this exhibition to compose the cycle “Pictures at an Exhibition” for piano solo; a milestone of piano literature. He wrote it in June 1874 in St. Petersburg and subtitled it “Memories of Viktor Hartmann”. The picturesque and evocative musical language, which lets the pictures come to life, has remained fascinating to the present day. The source of the Henle Urtext edition is the cleanly written autograph. The layout of the musical text is based on Mussorgsky’s notation.
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