“They are in a light style, intended more for use in the home than for concert performance”. Thus Smetana described these two duets in which he memorialised his Bohemian homeland. It is a fact, though scarcely believable, that Smetana had by this time already been deaf for two years. The pieces were popular from the outset: Smetana was able to demand a high price for them, and even to play off several aspiring publishers against each other. The duets are not technically over-demanding, and attract by means of their joyful character and powerful melodies.
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
