Choosing an edition
I'm looking to update my Beethoven music and I'm wondering how to choose a publisher/edition. Is there a "definitive" version? I had heard the best edition for Chopin is the Ekier National Edition, but I'm sure there is debate there. I have most of those and I love the commentary and footnotes. Is there a similar definitive or "best" edition for Beethoven? Or, what are the differences so I can choose?
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Clifford Davoli Thanks for this, Clifford. I note with interest this edition includes pedalling suggestions which the edition I have (Barry Cooper, ABRSM) doesn't include.
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The best edition, imho, is the newest Henle. If youâre looking particularly at the sonatas, Henleâs was co-edited by Murray Perahia who also provided all the fingerings. I donât think all 32 have been published yet, but they are pretty close. If youâre on a budget, then get the Dover edition edited by Heinrich Schenker (who also provided fingerings).
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I have to agree with Timothy, Henle for the Beethoven without a doubt. For Chopin I love the Paderewski. He just understands the music, piano and technique in such unified way.
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Angela Fogg I have read that he made changes of his own, that were not what Chopin wrote. What do you know about that?
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theoryman1
I have heard that about Paderewski as well. Cool to have an edition by a great pianist, but it isnât reliable.
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theoryman1 Hi! I grew up with the Paderewski and havenât ever really had a problem. I really like his fingering suggestions but it is his pedalling on a more modern instrument than Chopin composed on that I really like.
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Very interesting topic by the way!
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Most modern editions are somehow unreadable. The Ekier Chopin is a case in point, and I find the notes pretty arid, too. Mikuli on SMSLP is a far better choice. On Beethoven, I am afraid that having bought the Del Mar edition of the Beethoven sonatas (which is probably the best, textually) I find myself not consulting it much, because there is something so antiseptic about the Baerenreiter look of the page; in which it resembles the Ekier. Barry Cooper's edition, also highly recommendable for his editorial content, is no better in this regard. Henle's editions still look like music; there is something about the groupings of notes and the ratio of note-head to gap that communicates the music in a way that the other modern editions seem not to.
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Jeremy Stone Interesting how we all differ; I find the Ekier versions extremely readable, and the supplements very readable and interesting. I guess we're all different!
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theoryman1
The Ekier represents some of the best scholarship with alternate fingerings and passages easily identified. However, their page-turns are awful. Many of them happen at the worst possible moment and the binding tends to keep certain pages from laying flat when you need them to. I also wish they would bind the comments into the books themselves rather than inserting them as pamphlets. Itâs too bad they took the cheap route with binding and layout; addressing those two issues alone would make the Ekier the BEST Chopin edition period.
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Jeremy Stone I am also a great Henle fan!
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Chopin I use the Cortot study editions, good textual revisions, lots of thoughts about preparatory exercises and useful fingering.
Beethoven, Henle using their iPad app, if only for the five different fingerings you can select (Shnabel, Arrau, a few others). I donât love the Henle Perahia. The old Schnabel is great for demonstrating flexibility of tempo!
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Harry Neuwirth I'm going to look into the Cortot editions, thank you for that!
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theoryman1
Be careful with the Cortot. The exercises he provided are definitely helpful, and some of his interpretive advice is pure gold. However, his editing wasnât always reliable with omissions, wrong notes, fussy fingering, and added dynamics/articulations. These issues arenât just a result of the multitude of âsourcesâ for Chopinâs work (student scores, composer revisions, gifted manuscripts, etc.), instead Cortotâs insertions/revisions diverge from all other texts. Added to that, the print quality is quite poor.
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I love everyone's preferences
. I'll add mine to the mix:- Beethoven Sonatas: I just recently acquired the ABRSM Barry Cooper boxed edition and love it. The commentary book for each volume is incredibly detailed with performance notes and guidance.
- Chopin: I'm an adult returner and the Ekier editions didn't exist in my youth, so Paderewski was "the standard" back then. I'm using Ekier now, and in comparing the two editions, I find the differences are mostly with phrasing and occasional dynamic markings. With the Ekier editions, you'll also have some of Chopin's fingerings based on his student's notes, which I find thought provoking considering how he believed each finger has its own individual quality and character. I agree that the Cortot preparatory exercises for the Etudes can be useful, but I personally wouldn't study the music from that edition (Salabert edition). You can find the Cortot editions on IMSLP now.
- On Henle: Aesthetically, Henle wins. From the cover, to the print, Henle is indeed aesthetically pleasing. But all of the editions I mentioned above are still very legible to me, and any aesthetic shortcomings (which are nominal) are superseded by how they help inform my interpretation, along with their supposed accuracy.
