Prokofiev did not compose his Visions fugitives – 20 “fleeting visions” – in one go, but in clusters between 1915 and 1917, immediately before the Russian Revolution that compelled him to leave his native country in 1918. We know from his diaries that at least some of them owe their existence to extra-musical impulses. Thus several pieces were inspired by people close to him. Others impart his emotional reaction to the political situation with its menacing brutality. According to his own statement, for example, no. 19 “was inspired by the events of February 1917 in Petrograd”, during the Revolution’s first phase. Technically the pieces are not too demanding, and are also often used in teaching. They now appear for the first time in an Urtext edition that considers all the musical sources created during the composer’s lifetime. In his preface, Prokofiev specialist Simon Morrison provides biographical context for the genesis of this fantastic piano cycle.
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
