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New Editions

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BARENREITER RECOMMENDS

Mozart: Don Giovanni, K. 527

This practical vocal score of Mozart's towering operatic masterpiece, Don Giovanni, contains the original Prague version of 1787, whose musical and dramatic unity makes it infinitely preferable to any "mixed version". His changes for the Vienna performances of 1788 are reproduced in an appendix.

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The Piano Trio: Three Instruments – Three Ideal Partners

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Searching for the True Beethoven

What did Beethoven want?

Many amateurs find his handwriting difficult to read, and even professionals need considerable experience to decipher his autographs. Yet a composer of the stature of Ludwig van Beethoven deserves that every last detail be extracted from his manuscripts and from all other available sources.

The film “Searching for the True Beethoven: Bärenreiter Urtext Editions” offers insight into how Beethoven editions are created. Its protagonist is Jonathan Del Mar, a leading Beethoven scholar who has devoted much of his life to the study of this composer. In the film, he explains how he carries out his editorial work so that conductor Sir Simon Rattle, pianist Igor Levit, and the Pierrot Quartet can interpret and perform Beethoven’s music as the ingenious composer intended. These musicians also appear in the film, demonstrating how exciting it is to incorporate Del Mar’s scholarly work into their performances.

A Gateway to Real Piano Literature – The easiest original piano works by 21 composers

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From Intimate Lyricism to Noble Brilliance – The Art of the French Horn in Chamber Music

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Classic Reimagined – Great Composers Meet Jazz, World Music, Minimalism, and Pop

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    Digital Available

    Kleeb: Handel Goes World

    Options: Printed Edition, Digital Download
    $35.25
  • Digital Available

    Beethoven Goes Jazz

    Options: Printed Edition, Digital Download
    $26.00
  • Digital Available

    Bach Goes World

    Options: Printed Edition, Digital Download

    14 Popular Arrangements for Piano

    $28.00
  • Digital Available

    Mozart Goes Jazz

    Options: Printed Edition, Digital Download
    $23.25
  • Digital Available

    Beethoven Around the World

    Options: Printed Edition, Digital Download

    9 Popular Arrangements for Piano Solo

    $25.25

  • Classic Goes Jazz

    $28.00

  • Kleeb: Jazzy Piano

    $25.25
  • Digital Available

    Joplin: Ragtime

    Options: Printed Edition, Digital Download

    Easy arrangements for piano

    $28.00

  • Kleeb: Baila Negra

    13 new Latin-American piano pieces

    $25.25

100 Years of Bärenreiter

 In 1923, a year marked by extremes including inflation, depression, excessive parties, workers' riots, and political instability, Bärenreiter emerged. Founded by Karl Vötterle, a young man not yet of age, the company's humble beginnings consisted of publishing folksong collections, later expanding to include church and organ music editions.

Over the span of a century, Bärenreiter has evolved into an internationally renowned publisher, earning acclaim for its musicological editions that have captivated musicians worldwide. Today, musicians across the globe hold the BÄRENREITER URTEXT seal in high regard, recognizing it as a symbol of editions meticulously crafted through a comprehensive assessment of all available sources, while also considering the performer's needs.

What does "Urtext" mean?

'Urtext'. The very word smacks of dusty libraries and crumbling manuscripts that have to be handled with kid gloves. But behind the idea of 'Bärenreiter Urtext' are people passionately devoted, then and now, to living music. People who consider music a necessity of life, not a decorative adjunct.

All composers, whether a servant to a higher realm like Bach, or a genius like Mozart who composed faster than he could write, or a rebellious hero like Beethoven, have a precise idea of what their creations should sound like. But circumstances may have conspired to alter those creations or to detach them from their original idea.

Musicologists invest their every effort to reconstruct the intentions of the composer from the surviving sources. In a painstaking process of comparison, evaluation, decision-making and verification, they produce a version that will then appear in print and on the music stands of concert halls, opera houses or one's own living room.

Finally, musicians need a reliable basis for their art. No one who has studied the great works of music history will trust slipshod editions. Only the very best is good enough for the geniuses of the past.

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