An unorthodox neo-orthodoxy about classical/Beethoven editions.....

[pianophile]

I don't know if I'm unique in this respect, but I feel 19th century editions of music like Beethoven's and Bach's (let alone Chopin's, Schumann's and other romantic era composers) show an aesthetic in the notation's appearance that actually suits the music and how it's perceived, read, interpreted; compared to the dry, antiseptic, sterile appearance of modern Henle, Peters, and other editions.

I used to have a hundred years old Peters Beethoven volume (2: op.31 thru op.111) which I lost; I've since bought numerous more modern replacements, and I've concluded the 19th century engravers understood something that modern score designers/engravers lack: an interest in or ability to match/ing the score's appearance to the spirit and aesthetic of the music. It's reminiscent of the difference between beautiful cursive and the ugliest futuristic type face. Older edition strove for elegance and beauty; modern ones strip all aesthetics in favor of dry, cold objectivity. (Sort of like the common perception of many Pollini performances, which seems aligned with the modern anti-aesthetic - or maybe anti-romantic -modernist aesthetic. To me, this hurts the music, even impairing my connection with the music as I read the score.

[kosulin]

To each their own.
I definitely prefer the modern clean computer fonts, and bigger sheets, to what I see on IMSLP.
60-70-year old editions I own are still fine, but I prefer the modern ones to them as well. Mostly because they are cleaner.

[lelle]

I love the look of certain older engravings. First publications of Ravel, Debussy etc come to mind. They have a compactness and handmade quality that I think is more beautiful than the modern, thinner, more spacious digital look. However, I am completely fine playing from modern editions, and far from all old engravings hold up today - especially cheaper ones don't look that great.

[medtnerfan]

Luckily we can view a lot of different editions on imslp. I highly recommend looking at different editions from the past (Czerny, Moscheles, etc..) it's like having a masterclass with those musicians. Actually in Beethon's opus 2 no 1, 2nd movement (Adagio), there's one bar (Measure 52, the and of beat 3) that has a slight difference in all the older editions compared to the newer ones.