Schumann’s great C-major Fantasy, op. 17, was originally intended to be published as a “Sonata for Beethoven” entitled “Ruins, Trophies, Palms. Grand Sonata.“ Although he eventually abandoned this plan, he maintained the Fantasy’s mighty design. Writing to his fiancée Clara Wieck in March 1838, he called the first movement “perhaps the most impassioned music I have ever written.” Accordingly, it marks a point of culmination in his piano music, forming an exemplary combination of passion, delicacy, and virtuosity – a demanding, highly romantic work for ambitious pianists! Our volume presents a thorough revision of the musical text as well as an informative preface and text-critical commentary.
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
