Description
The two-volume Henle Urtext edition of Beethoven's piano sonatas has long been regarded as the standard reference edition among pianists worldwide. Published in the early 1950s and edited by Munich musicologist Bertha Antonia Wallner with support from the Beethoven Archive in Bonn, this edition quickly established itself as a new benchmark. Decades of rigorous field testing led to ongoing improvements and refinements, cementing its status as the definitive Urtext source for these works.
The printed fingerings provided by pianist and pedagogue Conrad Hansen are considered valuable suggestions for navigating technical and musical challenges - "as few fingerings as possible, albeit instructive ones," as Hansen himself described them. Henle also offers alternative Urtext editions without fingerings, as well as a pocket score version and digital versions in the Henle Library app featuring fingerings by renowned pianists.
Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas are cornerstones of the repertoire, with Hans von Bülow famously describing them as the "New Testament of music." While the 32 numbered sonatas are the focus, Henle also publishes a separate Urtext edition of the three "Electoral" Sonatas (WoO 47) composed by the 13-year-old Beethoven.
Key features of the Henle Urtext Beethoven sonata editions include: a scholarly critical edition based on all available sources, continuously updated; optimizations from practical usage; comprehensive footnotes; beautifully engraved notation; and optional fingerings. To further serve the demand for annotated Urtext, Henle has also begun publishing a parallel Perahia Edition featuring the renowned pianist's detailed commentary.
