As the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) approaches, it is a good time to get in the celebratory spirit by answering some FAQs. A warning, though: behind every seemingly straightforward answer, there are always more questions! 1. What editions should I use?  Simple answer: There are excellent Urtext editions av...

When learning a new musical work, we trust that all the notes confronting us have been accurately deciphered from a manuscript or its earliest source. While this is a must, it only serves to get one's footing, something quite hard in a time that has banished older editions as irrelevant loads of personal commentary and misguided revisions...

The central position of Beethoven's piano sonatas in our musical life remains secure, to judge from the flood of new editions of these pieces to emerge in recent years. Students and teachers of these indispensable works are confronted by choices, but there are no easy solutions, as the following comparison shows. For the purposes of this review I h...

There have been numerous collected editions of Chopin's music since his death, and few of them agree on anything. Why is this? The answer lies principally in the complexity of the source tradition, and I include under that heading both manuscript and early printed sources. It may be helpful to attempt a rough classification of these sources. Sketch...