What Edition Do You Buy?

November 29, 2025, 1:37 PM · I use international whenever possible because I’m lazy.

Edited: November 29, 2025, 2:17 PM · Schirmer is the one I avoid, I think. Always edited to Hell and back. Apart from that, I buy cheap or use IMSLP.

November 29, 2025, 3:54 PM · I avoid International because they're usually over-edited, and sometimes even take liberties with the actual notes. I bought a lot of International editions when I was self-teaching and didn't know a whole lot about the string repertoire, and I've had to re-purchase most of the pieces since then because they were entirely unusable with a pianist (or orchestra) playing from any other edition.

November 29, 2025, 5:38 PM · IMC are the ones I tend to avoid (I have bought a few where they have had mistakes).
Generally go for a Urtext (Bärenreiter, Henle, Wiener) but failing that Edition Peters

November 29, 2025, 9:27 PM · It used to be International, but nowadays if there's a Henle edition that's the one I typically get.

Edited: November 30, 2025, 12:18 AM · Wot Jake sed, but I couldn't remember their names when I posted previously. Schott are mostly okay but expensive.

There are other considerations - when you compare editions in IMSLP you'll see many differences and realise that you can supply your own input to suit you. That strengthens the argument for choosing a suitable IMSLP edition and editing it yourself.
A good example might be the Bärenreiter Vivaldi four seasons - it's just an overlay of the two MS traditions showing that different phrasings facilitate different bowing approaches.
But a lot depends on the composer - there's no rule and no uniformly reliable edition. The best editions are just starting points.
My teacher and I are using Bärenreiter for Mozart k301 and we are blithely amending it.(More precisely, I bought the Bärenreiter, but, to save on paper wear and tear, I'm using an IMSLP edition that looks like an ur-Bärenreiter and sometimes amending it in a way that disagrees with Bärenreiter)

November 29, 2025, 11:59 PM · If the edition is by a violinist I think is smart, I buy that one.

Edited: November 30, 2025, 12:21 AM · I sort of agree, Christian, but some of Oistrakh's work fails to convince.
And I'm not sure about Szerying's Bach either.

Edited: November 30, 2025, 1:32 AM · I guess de gustibus, but I find their editions edifying because they're kind of my north stars. I'm not really an urtext fetishist, although I have a few Barenreiters kicking around. Sometimes, like in the case of Handel, the music looks massively different between Barenreiter and, say Auer; sometimes a movement can seem like an entirely different piece of music. But I still kind of like the simplicity of just following father Auer's stern injunctions.

The Mozart violin sonatas by Francescatti are a little goofy, although he often follows the Flesch edition. It would be nice to have a Szeryng edition of them, but alas...

Regardless of actual musical aesthetics, I find Schott Editions to be laid out the best just in terms of the printing.

November 30, 2025, 2:32 AM · I use the Henle Edition in the Henle App on my ipad. It is has the most accurate content, a lot of information on the piece and it has an excellent layout. And the App has some helpful features that no other App offers.

November 30, 2025, 7:00 AM · First look for whatever your LOCAL music shop has, to avoid ordering by mail, and change anything that seems off to you or to your teacher.

November 30, 2025, 7:28 AM · I think Schott are fine for more "modern" pieces (Hindemith, Shostakovich etc), but I don't think I'd pick one of theirs if a Urtext was available

Edited: November 30, 2025, 10:09 AM · If you are interested in taking a look at my editions go to:
https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/en/explore?q=bruce+berg

Many have both edited and urtext pdf versions and are done "in the Galamian tradition".

Edited: December 1, 2025, 8:28 PM · I always go for David Oistrakh editions when available. If not, I pick an edition from IMSLP that looks best and has more browsings and fingerings to work with.

December 1, 2025, 8:53 AM · Barenreiter mostly. I have Wiener Urtext for the Mozart violin and piano sonatas. Schott is good for the Beethoven vc. I like Szeryng's edition of the Bach S&Ps. I have Schirmer for the Beethoven violin and piano sonatas which I find ok. So, I am all over the map, but I tend to get Barenreiter nowadays in my old age because it is an urtext and is easy to read.

December 1, 2025, 9:57 AM · Bärenreiters are value for money and uncluttered, enabling modification without confusion.

Edited: December 1, 2025, 9:58 AM · Wiener Urtext for anything with a piano part; has good street cred with pianists who edit their own editions and run with that crowd, also printing quality is good and opens flat.

December 1, 2025, 11:17 AM · If I buy music, and don't just download it off IMSLP and stick it in a folder, it's typically a piece that's special in some way, and I try to get an old and attractive copy. Ideally one of those hardback nicely-bound ones. But then physical music is more of a collection to me, and I mostly play from printouts.

December 1, 2025, 12:44 PM · Definitely Leopold Auer’s for the Tchaikovsky Concerto. :)

Edited: December 1, 2025, 4:58 PM · "opens flat"

Yes, the binding is an important consideration. To say more I'd have to go home to examine what I've got.

December 2, 2025, 3:59 AM · Henle, Peters.

December 2, 2025, 5:01 AM · I generally use the IMSLP for my first port of call for anything old enough to be in the public domain; though if other musicians are using a modern edition, and I am playing with them, I go and plague my local music shop for the same edition.

Edited: December 2, 2025, 12:04 PM · For the Brahms vc, I got the Simrock edition edited by Joseph Joachim. I figured he would have particular insight since he had substantial input into the concerto (Brahms was not a violinist and relied on Joachim in certain ways).

Edited: December 2, 2025, 1:16 PM · I prefer Henle if available, mostly for their excellent layout. They are more easily readable which is a huge advantage of you are sight reading. I painstakingly added the Peters rehearsal marks into my Henle Beethoven quartets so I can use my Henle part while the other play from Peters.

Henle does not typically provide fingerings--which is better than bad fingerings or--as in Peters editions--failing to address the truly difficult situations (the Beethoven sonatas have highly idiosyncratic fingerings by Max Rostal that are useless for the average amateur--and probably undesired by many professionals). If Henle is not available Bärenreiter is the second best option if you want urtexts though their layout is bot quite on the some level of excellence. I have some of the Haydn quartets from Doblinger--also very good.

December 2, 2025, 1:32 PM · Yeah, Rostal must have had a lot of technique to spare to be able to pull off some of his fingerings.

December 2, 2025, 1:55 PM · Actually, the Rostal fingerings for the Flesch scale exercises have given me a lot of useful automatisms.

December 2, 2025, 2:17 PM · Some of the more recent Henle urtext editions of solo repertoire (I have their 2003 edition of the Hoffmeister viola concerto) come with two copies of the part, one with suggested fingerings and bowings and one without.

December 2, 2025, 7:15 PM · I have found the editorial bowings and fingerings in the Henle editions to be pretty poor.Anyone else?

December 2, 2025, 7:35 PM · Andrew H, I think that's the same for most (if not all) Henle editions, at least in my experience

December 2, 2025, 10:21 PM · Why do you find the Rostal fingerings idiosyncratic? I find them quite intuitive, and my teacher usually likes them a lot.

Bruce, I use the Henle digital editions, which often offer many different sets of bowings and fingerings. There's usually at least one set that's very good. I'm less keen on some of the bowings/fingerings in the trios/quartets/etc.

December 3, 2025, 12:21 AM · I have a lot of International Editions, mostly of works by Bach and Vivaldi. I’m using IMSLP a lot these days.

December 3, 2025, 2:26 AM · My beef with Rostal is around stuff he does with the handframe. It might actually be useful, but I find it really strange. I have his Rode and Dont etudes, and I used almost none of his fingerings in Dont #2, where he has a lot of these contracted handframes that I find weird. There's some times (a bit in Dont #3) where he has these stretched out handframes where there's a stretch between multiple notes, so it's like you're in this no-man's land between positions.

He seems to want to compress or expand the handframe in order to avoid shifting, where it just feels so much simpler for me to shift in the right place. I find it to seem to have a kind of modernist technical logic of seeking the complete removal of the sound of shifting, which is a coherent aesthetic choice (not my preference), but the price feels too high for me if I were seeking that. I would much rather do stretches or contractions as digressions from an anchored and more stable handframe.

But then if that's his logic, why does he start Dont #2 with a shmear of the 1st finger when he could have easily avoided that with a little contraction (that feels really stable)?

For the most part, the fingerings are pretty good, and Dont does ask you to make some interesting shapes, but I find his fingering style often runs counter to the way I learned.

Edited: December 3, 2025, 5:14 AM · can't chime in I know Rostal only from the Flesch scales. Dont and Rode I have Peters editions, quite satisfied with those. they have the original Dont or Rode fingerings on top, and alternative fingerings by the editors below. by the way those original Rode fingerings are something and teach you something about how the violin was played back in his time. very often jumping in fast runs with the *same* finger to another place on another string, which is of course very weird and uncomfortable, but if you still practice it like that, it advances you a lot.

December 3, 2025, 2:14 PM · Oh, that makes sense. I often use fingerings which incorporate reaches or pivots, and rarely think about "positions" per se, especially above 3rd position. I don't have his Dont etudes though.