250 Years of Beethoven

Dear Friends of Music,
At long last we are able to celebrate a major Beethoven anniversary!
Only those of us who are older can recall the last anniversary in 1977. But this is a reference point in the far distant past to guide us, for 43 years later, it now looks as if Breitkopf & Härtel has reinvented Beethoven.

The current “Beethoven 250” catalog serves the following key areas:

All 32 piano sonatas available in Frederic Lamond’s newly released instructional edition
All string quartets reissued in the “Breitkopf Originals” series
All 9 symphonies, the major overtures, the violin concerto and the C minor Choral Fantasy now edited by Clive Brown, Peter Hauschild and Christian Rudolf Riedel in “Breitkopf Urtext” editions
Both Beethoven’s only opera “Fidelio” and the text-critical early version of “Leonore” available in editions
Once again, editions of all 9 symphonies, all 7 solo concertos, and a multitude of other orchestral works available in the Urtext of the new Beethoven Complete Edition (in collaboration with G. Henle Verlag)
The two masses and other important choral works available in the Urtext of the new Beethoven Complete Edition (in collaboration with G. Henle Verlag)

You may of course now feel free to browse this catalogue and discover what it includes.

And our birthday celebrant would certainly be highly gratified with that and repeat his wonderful statement of 1810: “It is not pompous when I tell you that I prefer you over all others.”

Further reading:
Beethoven’s Orchestral Works in Breitkopf Urtext