Könemann Music Budapest

[joe wallace]

Hi!
    I have recently purchased some of Könemann Music Budapest's sheet music (complete piano works of Mozart, Beethoven, Grieg & Brahms). I have looked on the internet, but I can't seem to find any information about this company at all. Does anyone know of where I can purchase the complete piano works of other composers, or whether they exist at all?

Many thanks,

Joe Wallace

[richard black]

I spoke to an acquaintance in the sheet music trade about Könemann and he agreed with my surmise that the whole enterprise was a 'one-time' thing - some business person got in quick while Hungary was still a cheap place to do business and got some reprints done there of long-out-of-copyright scores. They're nicely enough done, printed on decent paper, properly bound and all that but the catalogue is very limited and I gather that once the current run sells out, that's it.

[faulty_damper]

I have quite a few selections of Koenemann.  They went out of business for some reason I do not know.

They were in the midst of publishing complete works of many popular composers like Chopin, Beethoven, Debussy, and not so popular ones.  I'm not sure if they ever finished it.

They were able to publish complete works of Haydn, Skrjabin, and others.  They also published them hardbound which was very nice and very inexpensive.

Koenemann actually engraved their own plates and the quality was top notch.  It was preferable to Henle Urtext editions.  Also, it was much more Urtext than other Urtext editions like Henle and Vienna especially in Haydn's sonatas.  This could lead to performing problems because it included "mistakes" from the sources like parallel octaves or ornaments which we would interpret differently now.  Koenemann made no effort to correct them for modern eyes which is really nice.

Recently, I went to my local music shop and I saw some new editions of the books.  The cover was different and the print looked like it was photocopied because it was not as clear as it should have been.  I would interpret that someone bought up the rights to Koenemann's catalog and reprinted the music, obviously from Xerox; not from the plates.

Koenemann published extensively not just in sheet music but in other areas of interest.

[mr j silverman]

Konemann was the work of a businessman who published everything from art books to cookery books etc. He decided to produce masterly urtext editions of classical music at prices that would undercut the big capitalist music publishers (virtually the whole of British Music Publishing now belongs to a few off-shore trusts, private equity companies, global insurance companies etc) He could do this by the fact of being based in Hungary - then a non-capitalist country , where a] profits did not have to be grotesquely high b] wages could be grotesquely low c] scholarship and education was high - and the methods honest [In the West I have personal experience of the common practice of putting in deliberate 'mistakes' so as to catch out copyright breaches].

These editions used to be commonly available not mainly in music shops but in remainder book shops etc. later they got taken up by some music shops - who put up the prices 200 - 300% and were still able to undercut rival editions. International Music Sales - when they acquired the majority of music publishers and shops in the UK banned their branches from stocking Konemann editions for this very reason - in favour e.g. of Dover Edition - which are all very well in their own way, but are merely reprints of antiquated editions, full of acquired inauthentic cosmetic pedal legato and fingering makings etc. and - cheap though they are - still cost double.

Konemann are in most respects and in most cases by far the best editions when you vcan still find copies......https://[youtube][sup][/sup][/youtube]

[mr j silverman]

By the way - yes - they were going to be the first to publish complete keyboard works of CPE Bach - still not done anywhere - No they did not finish this task by the time they were destroyed. Similarly complete piano music of Tchaikovsky (amazingly no one else tried this either) complete Balakirev, Glinka, Scriabin, and most interesting, Liadov - of course the Bach + brilliant complete Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven editions - which they did finish.

[quantum]

Never knew such info about Konemann.

There is a bunch of Konemann scores sitting in a used bookstore near me for cheap.  Should I grab them?

[keyboardclass]

I use their Mozart and am still looking out for their Haydn volume II.

[mr j silverman]

In reply to quantum: please do not go anywhere near that shop. Just send me details immediately where it is and what exactly they've got. I want everything for myself NOW!

Seriously - this is a tremendous opportunity

[faulty_damper]

Never knew such info about Konemann.

There is a bunch of Konemann scores sitting in a used bookstore near me for cheap.  Should I grab them?

Yes! Less than $10 a volume.  I bought the Complete 4 volumes of Haydn keyboard works for under $30, what a steal!  Unfortunately, only reprints are now published so the print quality is much lower.

[jcarroll873]

I have four of these beautiful collections--Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Brahms, each three or four volumes in a slipcase.  Found them in a remainder cart at a Barnes and Noble after Christmas one year, at least 8 years ago.  $15 each!  I stood there for ages agonizing about which one (or maybe, extravagantly, two) to buy, until FINALLY the light dawned and I bought  them all!  I've been researching them off and on since then and am gald to know now some more about the publisher, etc.  Many thanks for this very interesting information about these treasures.