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New Editions

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BARENREITER RECOMMENDS

Organ Plus One: Passion and Easter

The series ORGAN PLUS ONE contains pieces which are freely-composed or based on hymn tunes, both original works as well as arrangements.

The editions include solo parts in C, B-flat, E-flat and F, which can be played by violin, flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet and horn in F.

The range of the solo instrument parts is in the middle register, making this series particularly appealing to non-professional church musicians and instrumentalists.

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Looking for inspiration for your Easter concerts? Discover the most beloved and frequently performed choral works in the Bärenreiter catalogue.

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Searching for the True Beethoven

What did Beethoven want?

Many amateurs find his handwriting difficult to read, and even professionals need considerable experience to decipher his autographs. Yet a composer of the stature of Ludwig van Beethoven deserves that every last detail be extracted from his manuscripts and from all other available sources.

The film “Searching for the True Beethoven: Bärenreiter Urtext Editions” offers insight into how Beethoven editions are created. Its protagonist is Jonathan Del Mar, a leading Beethoven scholar who has devoted much of his life to the study of this composer. In the film, he explains how he carries out his editorial work so that conductor Sir Simon Rattle, pianist Igor Levit, and the Pierrot Quartet can interpret and perform Beethoven’s music as the ingenious composer intended. These musicians also appear in the film, demonstrating how exciting it is to incorporate Del Mar’s scholarly work into their performances.

A Musical Form That Made History – Trace the many faces of the piano sonata

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The Viola – Soulful and Expressive. Find music from the 18th to the 21st centuries in the Bärenreiter catalogue.

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Curtain Up – The Score Behind Every Great Voice

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100 Years of Bärenreiter

 In 1923, a year marked by extremes including inflation, depression, excessive parties, workers' riots, and political instability, Bärenreiter emerged. Founded by Karl Vötterle, a young man not yet of age, the company's humble beginnings consisted of publishing folksong collections, later expanding to include church and organ music editions.

Over the span of a century, Bärenreiter has evolved into an internationally renowned publisher, earning acclaim for its musicological editions that have captivated musicians worldwide. Today, musicians across the globe hold the BÄRENREITER URTEXT seal in high regard, recognizing it as a symbol of editions meticulously crafted through a comprehensive assessment of all available sources, while also considering the performer's needs.

What does "Urtext" mean?

'Urtext'. The very word smacks of dusty libraries and crumbling manuscripts that have to be handled with kid gloves. But behind the idea of 'Bärenreiter Urtext' are people passionately devoted, then and now, to living music. People who consider music a necessity of life, not a decorative adjunct.

All composers, whether a servant to a higher realm like Bach, or a genius like Mozart who composed faster than he could write, or a rebellious hero like Beethoven, have a precise idea of what their creations should sound like. But circumstances may have conspired to alter those creations or to detach them from their original idea.

Musicologists invest their every effort to reconstruct the intentions of the composer from the surviving sources. In a painstaking process of comparison, evaluation, decision-making and verification, they produce a version that will then appear in print and on the music stands of concert halls, opera houses or one's own living room.

Finally, musicians need a reliable basis for their art. No one who has studied the great works of music history will trust slipshod editions. Only the very best is good enough for the geniuses of the past.

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