Schrimer Publications

[queenrock]

Are the Schrimer publications of piano works actually any good, because they're always quite cheap and that makes me suspicious.

[comsmcsc]

Do you mean Schirmer? I have many of the Schirmer publications.  They are fine.  I often change the fingering and sometimes the pedaling, but do that anyway. . .

[richard black]

They're inconsistent. Quite a few are facsimile reprints of other editions (examples off the top of my head: Rachmaninov 3rd concerto is the same as the Boosey and Hawkes edition, which is itself a reprint of something else (Koussevitzky maybe? - can't remember), Bach-Busoni Chaconne is the same as the Breitkopf and Härtel) so they're just as good or bad as the source (in either of the quoted cases, there are no other editions generally available anyway). Others are originals done for Schirmer often many decades ago and reflecting the taste of the time. So no general answer to your question, really.

[j.s. bach the 534th]

Schirmer has a great First Lessons in Bach book. Other than that, I do not ahve any Schirmer books.

[rachfan]

Some Schirmer editions are good and some are not so good.  As Richard Black said, they are inconsistent. 

The Schirmer edition of the Liszt Annees de Pelerinage (Italie) edited by Rafael Joseffy, for example, is excellent because Joseffy worked very closely with Liszt himself on that edition.  Similarly, Schirmer's Sauer Edition of the Brahms Short Pieces is excellent because Emil von Sauer was not only an editor in this instance, but a wonderful artist as well.  He had even played Brahms' works in Liszt's master classes, fully knowing that Liszt disliked Brahms!  Schirmer editions like these continue to serve pianists well. 

In contrast, Schirmer's Czerny edition of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, is over edited, very likely not historically accurate, and long out of vogue. (Czerny claimed he heard his teacher, Beethoven, play all 24 Preludes & Fugues and recalled it in detail  ).  Generally speaking, pianists would best use urtext editions such as Henle, or similar scholarly undertakings (like the fine and highly respected Paderewski editions of Chopin).  Again, some Schirmer are very good, depending on the editor.       

[queenrock]

Hi,

Sorry about the spelling mistake, and thanks for replying, I think i'll just go ahead and buy one just to see what it's like.

[nanabush]

Just got the Schirmer edition of the Bach/Busoni Toccata and Fugue in D minor.  I don't have any problems with it (but I'm also used to getting whatever I can online, so a book of any kind is a nice change)