Beethoven Sonatas: Henle's Perahia Edition Reviews?

[indianpianist99]

Hi everyone, need some advice about Henle's Perahia edition for the Beethoven Sonatas.

I have both Edition Peters volumes of the 32 edited by Arrau which I really like. It has some very interesting fingerings and has been quite helpful at times but sometimes the fingerings are just weird haha. Its also not urtext because there are edits all over the place

I'm going to invest in some Henle editions for the Beethoven Sonatas. Has anyone used the Perahia edition that they have recently released? If yes, got any reviews or thoughts about it?

I'm confused between buying the Perahia editions vs the regular ones. I know the Perahia ones are in 3 volumes and will overall be more expensive (and not immediate since Vol 3 is still under prep) but I'm willing to make the investment in 3 volumes and shell out the extra cash if those editions are worth it.

Appreciate any insights, thanks

[kosulin]

Why Henle? And what do mean as regular editions?
IMO right now the best editions are:
Barenreiter Del Mar if you do not need fingerings - best critical Urtext
ABRSM Cooper if you need fingerings - best Urtext performance edition
Perahia edition is not critical, and its only selling point is Perahia fingerings which are not for everyone. Not to mention that that it is not complete yet.

[jamienc]

Why Henle? And what do mean as regular editions?
IMO right now the best editions are:
Barenreiter Del Mar if you do not need fingerings - best critical Urtext
ABRSM Cooper if you need fingerings - best Urtext performance edition
Perahia edition is not critical, and its only selling point is Perahia fingerings which are not for everyone. Not to mention that that it is not complete yet.

Agreed! And not only that, but I have earlier clothbound Henle editions in TWO volumes as opposed to the now three that are being sold. Inflation everywhere!

[lelle]

I love the old clothbound edition from Henle, so I generally trust their editions. Perahia's fingerings could be interesting for some of the harder sonatas, but I'm personally not that excited by the prospect even though I enjoy listening to Perahia's Beethoven a lot. Are the Perahia editions replacing the old ones or do they appear as an option?

[kosulin]

You can still buy the old Wallner edition if you wish, but there is no reason to do this in print - its musical text is not up to date.
Digital edition might make sense as add-on, because it includes multiple fingering options to choose from.

[lelle]

So the Perahia Henle has updated scholarship on the text as well?

[kosulin]

So the Perahia Henle has updated scholarship on the text as well?

Yes. If you are looking for a most up to date score, all 4 major editions (ABRSM Cooper, Barenreiter Del Mar, Henle Perahia and Wiener Reutter) have about the same musical text. Main differences are in fingerings, and critical and performance notes. Fonts, paper and layout are different as well, of course.
Alfred Masterworks also offers a good modern text, but its layout is not good IMO for a performance edition - too much info in footnotes which take up to half of a page space on some pages.