G. Henle Verlag

18/07/2025

Beyond Händel, Scarlatti and Bach: Become acquainted with Johann Kuhnau, one of the foremost personalities of middle-German musical life around the turn of the 17th to 18th centuries and predecessor of Johann Sebastian Bach as Thomas Cantor in Leipzig. Kuhnau did not only establish a name for himself as a composer and (music) scholar, but also enjoyed an outstanding reputation as a jurist.
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In addition to his numerous works for liturgical use, his volumes of music for keyboard instruments are of particular importance – and in our Urtext edition, these “Works for Keyboard” are all united for the first time! Now, find out more about this fascinating personality in our post and embark on a voyage of discovery to his music with our edition: https://www.henle.de/en/Complete-Works-for-Keyboard/HN-956
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Stay tuned to discover other lesser known masters with us!
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17/07/2025

Set the stage for this inventive and lively work: “From Holberg’s Time” was composed by Edvard Grieg on the occasion of the 200th birthday of the Norwegian-Danish poet Ludvik Holberg. For this piece, Grieg chose baroque dance movements from Holberg’s era, but skilfully combined them with elements of his own tonal language, such as chromatic progressions and dynamic swells. The orchestral version of the “Holberg Suite”, which was very successful right from the beginning, is still one of Grieg’s most popular compositions today and now enriches the Henle programme for string orchestra.
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For Grieg’s colourful “suite in the old style”, Henle offers performance material for chamber orchestra in addition to the long-established study editions, leaving nothing to be desired: a clearly laid out conducting score in a larger format and parts equipped for performance – in hard cover, with enlarged type area and enlarged engraving with excellent page turns! And what's more, the parts are available individually or as an inexpensive set! Explore our new series, works for chamber orchestra, which we are now gradually building up!
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See all available editions of Grieg’s “From Holberg’s Time” at G. Henle Publishers: https://www.henle.de/en/From-Holberg-s-Time-op.-40/HN-3320
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15/07/2025

“This is a different expression of myself”, Satie once said, commenting on his Nocturnes. Indeed, these five pieces, which are not difficult to play, seem unusually serious and far removed from the nonsense, parody and cabaret atmosphere that colour such a large part of his oeuvre. With his Nocturnes, composed in 1919, Satie concluded the series of cyclically organized piano pieces which, in a way, constitute the backbone of his oeuvre.
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As his models, he chose the eponymous pieces by John Field and Frédéric Chopin, borrowing not only the romantic, elegiac inflections, but also the tripartite form and rocking movement. Totally original, in turn, is the harmony which he devised according to his own system – just take a look at the frontispiece in our Urtext edition, which shows Satie's harmonic plan of the second Nocturne from his sketchbook! Get to know the different side of Satie, with helpful fingerings by Pascal Rogé: https://www.henle.de/en/Nocturnes/HN-1205
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11/07/2025

10/07/2025

“Dear friend, there is a musician here endowed with the most brilliant, most enchanting, and perhaps the most profound talent: George Gershwin,” wrote Maurice Ravel to his friend Nadia Boulanger on March 8, 1928, and continued, “His worldwide success no longer satisfies him, for he is aiming higher. He knows that he lacks the technical means to achieve his goal. In teaching him those means, one might ruin his talent. Would you have the courage, which I wouldn’t dare have, to undertake this awesome responsibility?”
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Ravel and Gershwin met on several occasions during Ravel's U.S. tour in New York, including at the birthday party that the mezzo-soprano Eva Gautier held for Ravel on March 7, 1928. George Gershwin was one of the honored guests, as Ravel was eager to meet him. Eva Gautier recalled, “George that night surpassed himself, achieving astounding feats in rhythmic intricacies, so that even Ravel was dumfounded. George was very keen to study with Ravel, but the Frenchman’s response was that ‘you might lose that great melodic spontaneity and write bad Ravel.’”
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However, Gershwin did not study with Nadia Boulanger either; he continued his studies with the American composers Henry Cowell and Wallingford Riegger, among others. Explore the works of Gershwin and Ravel at Henle: https://brnw.ch/ravel2025
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08/07/2025

Parody and nonsense: In a typically humorous manner Satie countered the myth of the great master’s “last thought” with his “Next-to-last thoughts” (Avant-dernières Pensées). About a dubious idyll of “wet brooks” and woods “as dry as sticks”, about a “lovely sleeper” who simply doesn't want to wake up when her ageing lover sings her a morning serenade and about a poet who gets stomach ache from “bad blank verses and bitter disappointments” – as was usual with his piano works from 1912 onwards, each of the three highly distinctive pieces with their sound sensitive piano settings contained a short whimsical story printed in the musical text as a subtext, which is more or less closely connected with the music.
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Satie’s piano suites are dedicated to the three important composers Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas and Albert Roussel, without containing any specific textual allusions. Great fun, and at a very playable level! With fingerings by Pascal Rogé!
https://www.henle.de/en/Avant-dernieres-Pensees/HN-1181
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04/07/2025

A tribute turned into timeless music: after the death of the befriended architect and illustrator Victor Hartmann, an exhibition of his paintings and drawings was held in his memory. A visit to this exhibition inspired Mussorgsky to compose this cycle of ten movements, which is considered a milestone of piano literature and remains one of the most popular works for piano solo. It is characterized by a picturesque, suggestive tonal language that brings the images to life.
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Take a stroll with us through the exhibition and discover the multifaceted pictures of this masterpiece: https://www.henle.de/en/Pictures-at-an-Exhibition/HN-477
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01/07/2025

Who was Erik Satie? “Not a musician”, by his own admission, as he created the idea of background music, the “musique d'ameublement”, and emphasised simplicity, clarity and brevity in his music.
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According to Maurice Ravel, he was an “innovator, a pioneer, even an extremist” who “anticipated Debussyan impressionism, passed through it in his thinking, and was one of the leaders in the direction away from it.”
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A composer with an unusually bizarre sense of humour, which he demonstrated in the “Sonatine bureaucratique” or the “Avant-dernières Pensées”. An entertaining pianist in cafés and cabarets such as the famous “Le Chat Noir”, who was in contact with representatives of the contemporary avant-garde of the visual arts such as Pablo Picasso, Man Ray and Jean Cocteau. A complex personality with constant money worries.
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Erik Satie died 100 years ago today. Discover a selection of his works, including his three famous Gymnopédies, in our programme: https://www.henle.de/en/Satie-Erik/
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27/06/2025

Which path do you want to take? It's good to have a choice, unlike the miller in Schubert's song “Wohin?” (“Where to?”) from “Die schöne Müllerin”, who has to follow the little brook as if under a spell. In this edition, this “Müller Song” is once again congenially transcribed for piano solo by Schubert fan Franz Liszt who skilfully portrays the wanderer’s confusion, by having the individual melody notes played alternately by the left and right hand. In the spirit of Liszt, the song text is overlaid above the melody-bearing voice in the piano setting, to aid a poetic rendition. With fingerings by Maestro Evgeny Kissin! A good introduction to this area of Liszt’s artistry: https://www.henle.de/en/Wohin-from-Die-schoene-Muellerin-D-795/HN-1054
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20/06/2025

Not necessarily grotesque, but still “peculiar” was Émile Pessard's opinion of his student Maurice Ravel's piece, which was only labelled “Serenade” at the time. After Ravel had played the piece in class, the teacher said to him: "All this produces a most unusual impression [...]. You must rein in your thoughts and take fewer liberties [...]".
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The Sérénade grotesque is Ravel’s earliest known piano work, but remained unpublished during his lifetime. Ravel himself pointed out the influence of composer Emmanuel Chabrier, whom he admired throughout his life – apparent in the bizarre twists. Especially, Chabrier’s Bo***ée fantasque may have inspired him.
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However, individual traits such as dissonant harshness or the Pizzicatissimo at the beginning clearly point to Ravel’s later style. Technically not too difficult, the serenade is a good introduction to Ravel’s piano cosmos – all the more so as Cédric Tiberghien, a true connoisseur of Ravel’s piano music, was responsible for the fingerings. Go for it: https://www.henle.de/de/Serenade-grotesque/HN-1590
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