French piano music

An important focus of our catalogue falls on French music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many seminal works from this fascinating period have been published, such as Fauré's “Barcaroles”, the op. 19 “Ballade” and the “Valse-Caprices” (all edited by Christophe Grabowski from the “Œuvres complètes de Gabriel Fauré”); Debussy's “Children's Corner”, “Arabesques”, “Pour le Piano”, “Suite bergamasque”, “Images I and II” and Book I of the “Préludes”; Ravel's „Jeux d’eau“, “Pavane pour une infante défunte” and “Valses nobles et sentimentales”; Satie's “Ogives/Gymnopédies”, all seven “Gnossiennes” and many other works“; Chabrier's “Habanera” in its original version for piano.

Our first Urtext edition of Chopin's works, containing the “Préludes” op. 28 and the “Prélude” op. 45, introduces a new composer to the Bärenreiter piano catalogue. Hardly any cycle of piano pieces can match the magnetic attraction of Chopin's “Préludes”. Now Christoph Flamm has subjected the sources to a fresh critical examination. Hardy Rittner, a hammerklavier specialist who has won the Echo Prize two times and has recorded Brahms's piano music and the Chopin “Études” on period instruments, has augmented Chopin's fingering from an historical perspective and supplied valuable notes on performance practice. An aesthetically presented engraving and practical page turns make this timely edition quite a special showpiece of the piano literature. In the meantime also Chopin’s Barcarolle op. 60 has been added to our catalogue.