Rodolphe Kreutzer editions

August 10, 2023, 7:07 AM · Does anyone have a favourite edition of Kreutzer?
There are things about Schirmer that I don't like.

Replies (8)

jean dubuisson

August 10, 2023, 8:29 AM · I like the Peters edition nr.4510, edited by Davisson (as opposed to the classic Peters edition nr.284 edited by Hermann), Davisson has very original fingerings, I learned a lot from them.

Mary Ellen Goree

August 10, 2023, 9:42 AM · Galamian

Scott Slapin

August 10, 2023, 11:57 AM · I think modern editions of Kreutzer etudes are a bit like the Vitali Chaconne; lots of (famous and historical) violinists have added their own ideas over the years, and the result is a bit of a group effort. The modern editions do disagree in the order of a few of them, and of course the fingerings and smaller details are different, but there is a general similarity to all the modern ones that is quite far off from the Urtext, whose numbering system is consistently different, and which has missing sections here and there, missing tenths etc.

It is interesting to see what Kreutzer himself wrote, but I wouldn't recommend the Urtext to work from. (Kreutzer evidently wrote 40 operas. Has anyone ever seen one?)

Gordon Shumway

Edited: August 10, 2023, 12:33 PM · In fact, Scott, it might be worth ignoring your advice (with the best possible intentions and the greatest respect) in the case of Kreutzer #1 (the out-of-character adagio sostenuto one). In the scale passages the original just has runs of notes without any phrasing, and it might make more sense to improvise rather than follow a modern edition slavishly.

Adrian Heath

August 10, 2023, 2:54 PM · Flesch. More suitable for small hands than Galamian.
I have copied his fingerings into my Ricordi viola edition.

Scott Slapin

August 10, 2023, 4:15 PM · Gordon, I agree with you on both of those points. I'm not sure why they put the extra two as no. 1 and no. 12. 12 is ok enough where it is, but I think most people start with no. 2 (the original no.1).