24 Preparatory Exercises Op. 37

Dont, Kreutzer, Rode: three of the most prominent Violin pedagogues of the nineteenth century are united here in one volume. At the outset of the nineteenth century, Rodolphe Kreutzer and Pierre Rode each composed epochal collections of studies (see HN 1177 and HN 1186); in 1852, as an introduction to these two standard works, Jakob Dont wrote his exceptionally helpful 24 Preparatory Exercises op. 37, which even today no student of the Violin can avoid. Their success is also evident from the fact that numerous revised editions were published in the twentieth century by violinists such as Hans Sitt, Carl Flesch, or Ivan Galamian. Now for the first time, G. Henle Publishers’Urtext edition restores access to the unadulterated original with Dont’s authentic fingering and bowing suggestions, in an outstandingly legible musical text. The prominent Violin pedagogue Paul Roczak acted as a consultant for this edition and carefully supplemented Dont’s original marking.

Romance in D flat major op. 37

The Romance for a melodic instrument and Piano was a very popular genre in French salon music of the nineteenth century. Saint-Saëns also wrote several such pieces for Violin, Cello, and Horn. His only Romance for Flute was composed in 1871, shortly after the Société nationale de musique had been founded. It was premiered in this new forum for Piano music and chamber works a year later, too. In spite of its brevity, the piece contains numerous harmonic and melodic refinements, which rapidly made it popular among flautists – both in the original setting with Piano accompaniment as well as in the later orchestral version. The Henle Urtext edition is the firstcritical edition of this piece, which is also very popular with learners of the Flute.

Piano Sonata D major Hob. XVI:37

Orgelstucke

Apart from his organ sonatas, Felix Mendelssohn also composed numerous other works for the king of instruments. The present volume focuses on a selection of eight works from Mendelssohn’s maturity, including the three “Preludes and Fugues”, op. 37. This group of works is, without exaggeration, one of the first important organ works of the 19th century, with which Mendelssohn heralded the second era of organ music after the baroque. The editor of this Urtext edition, organ specialist Wolfgang Stockmeier, explains in his extensive preface how Mendelssohn based his polyphonic works for keyboard instruments on Handel’s, rather than on Bach’s, compositional technique.