Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Music publishers Bärenreiter have rightly received loud applause for their recent scholarly performing urtext editions of Beethoven’s music.
Of particular interest to Pianodao readers, Jonathan Del Mar’s edition of the complete Piano Sonatas (reviewed here) was a milestone that was soon joined in the catalogue by Mario Aschauer’s landmark Diabelli Variations edition (reviewed here).
Aschauer has now brought as an exhaustively Complete Bagatelles edition that further consolidates the publisher’s lead in this repertoire.
A Bagatelle (French, “trifle”) is by definition a “short piece in a lighter style”, and Beethoven’s, which include the evergreen Für Elise, are surely among the most famous of all. Indeed, it is probably not overstating their importance to say that they set the musical scene for the character pieces which became such a popular staple of the domestic piano repertoire in the Romantic Era.
For the developing pianist, meanwhile, these pieces offer an important bridge between Beethoven’s easy dances and his monumental Sonata cycle. No wonder that they have long been recognised as an indispensable part of the early advanced repertoire, essential for players at around UK Grades 6-7.
Continue reading Beethoven • The Complete Bagatelles
