Henle Edition

[samwitdangol]

Hello!

I have a short question.
Is the Henle edition a good edition?
I am using it for Chopin's nocturnes and Beethoven's sonatas.

Thank you!

[j_tour]

Yes. 

I like the color and weight of the paper:  it's easy to read from.  For me, anyway:  bright white paper gives me a headache and the Henle has a better shade, while preserving contrast. 

I don't like the thicker volumes, at least in paperback.  I'd rather just use a Dover for a volume over a hundred pages, as far as cracking of the spine and pages falling out.  I like the András Schiff edition the WTCII, but even then it's a little bit cumbersome, even in the paperback. 

I have no real book-binding knowledge, and I'm probably wrong, but I certainly wouldn't take one like that, which is of even modest number of pages, and just crack the spine toward the middle.  Meh, perhaps just like any other larger book, one has to break them in from the ends.  I really don't know, but all I can say is they're physically superb in the medium-small length editions. 

For me they're sturdy, legible volumes in the smaller sizes, and they lie flat on whatever music stand you're using. 

I wouldn't know about who edited whatever you're looking at, but that's just as far as reading and handling goes.

Yes, I have a bunch of the Beethoven Sonatas in Henle, but only in the individual opera, and some of them are so old I don't know who edited them, or else I'm so old I don't remember.  Regardless, even the older ones I still have are still standing, and the paper takes well to many erasures and pencilings of indications or whatever you want to write on the scores.

It's a nice shade of blue for the covers, though!   

[pianoannieq]

Hi Samwitdangol,

Henle urtext is really good, and I have the both volumes for the complete Beethoven sonatas. I don't really like some of their fingering and the books can be expensive, but it all depends on the pianist. The cover is also waterproof  ?

For the nocturnes, I would recommend the Chopin National Edition (Ekier) and Paderewski editions.

For Beethoven's sonatas, I've heard that Barry Cooper's ABRSM edition is excellent. I also use Alfred's Edition edited by Artur Schnabel which has notes that I find helpful.

Henle also has newer editions of Beethoven sonatas edited by Murray Perahia and Gertsch, but they don't sell in complete sets.