The differences from the autograph to today
In his two-volume edition of Beethoven's violin sonatas, Clive Brown has listed the differences in the musical text from the autograph to the present day.
The violinist Clive Brown, who taught for many years in Oxford and Vienna, has published a comprehensive scholarly-critical edition of the ten sonatas for piano and violin in two volumes. The introductory texts in English and German provide fundamental information on the changing performance practice from Beethoven to the present day. It also provides exciting facts about the creation of the sonatas, their characterization and practical suggestions for the individual movements. The appendix lists the metronomic indications from many editions from Haslinger (1828) to Kreisler (1935); Beethoven himself did not give any for the violin sonatas. A "Performing Practice Commentary" is available free of charge online via the publisher's website. The Critical Report, about 20 pages at the back of each of the piano parts and only in English, explains the differences from the autograph through the many subsequent editions up to Henle (1974) - comparatively and evaluatively, some of them for the first time!
Footnotes in the parts provide information on alternatives. In addition to the Urtext violin part, there is also one with bowings and fingerings by the editor, which deal with historical circumstances but are often impractical. The generous musical notation requires a quarter more pages than the Henle edition, which often leads to unnecessary expansion, e.g. in the violin part of the Presto op. 47 to eight pages, Scherzo op. 96 to 2½ pages! Nevertheless, the new findings are a quantum leap since Rostal's book of 1985.
Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonatas for piano and violin, edited by Clive Brown; Volume I, BA 9014, € 39.95; Volume II, BA 9015, € 44.95; Volume I + II in a package, BA 9036, € 74.00, Bärenreiter, Kassel
