For our Urtext edition of the Clarinet Sonata op. 167 we were able to consult the autograph for the first time. “At the moment I am putting my last ounce of energy into giving seldom considered instruments an opportunity to be heard”, Saint-Saëns wrote to a friend in April of the year he died. A sonata for oboe, one for clarinet and one for bassoon were thus composed; yet he was not to hear the premieres. As far as form and infl ection are concerned, the three wind sonatas op. 166 –168 hark back to the gallant style of the 18th century and thus approach the neoclassicism movement around 1920. Humour, wit and fine irony characterise these works for wind.
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
