Customer Reviews

Mozart 19 Sonatas - Complete: Piano Solo (Schirmer's Library of Musical Classics, Vol. 1304)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was shocked to find largely positive reviews of this product. Since by criticizing it, I am contradicting other reviewers fairly directly, let me just explain my level of qualification: my bachelor's degree is in piano performance, and my master's degree is in piano pedagogy and performance. I am a private piano instructor and college music professor.

I can say without hesitation that there is no worse edition of the Mozart sonatas currently in print. This is true for several reasons:

1. The fingerings added here do more harm than good; my piano professor used to joke that Schirmer's editors were secretly hand surgeons trying to drum up their business by injuring pianists through repetitive motion in cramped positions. When one of my students brings in a Schirmer edition, I usually black out more of the fingerings than I keep.

2. The dynamic markings and articulations added to this edition reflect nineteenth century performance practice, and ignore more than a century of scholarship.

3. I find textual interference to be a bad idea in general, and recommend purchasing an Urtext edition instead. Henle or Wiener Urtext is hard to surpass; additionally, Kalmus/WB publishes a quite inexpensive edition. If, however, you dislike Urtext editions and want more guidance as to how to play the pieces, this is still not the edition for you. Buy the Alfred's edition instead, which at least gives decent advice (why pay for BAD advice from Schirmer?) and distinguishes between what the composer wrote and what the editor added.

4. Wrong notes. Lots of them, all through the sonatas.

5. The numbering system used for this edition is a version of the Koechel Verzeichnis seventy years obsolete.

6. VERY poor print quality. This edition is not even a new engraving; in addition to the overall lightness of print, there are frequent flyspots which contribute to the general illegibility.

The only redeeming quality of this Schirmer edition - and most Schirmer editions, in fact - is its cheapness.

This edition is not a good edition. I recently just started taking lessons from a very accomplished concert pianist from Germany and he told me never to buy this edition again. It's way over-edited. I am playing the 15th sonata in a minor and some passages are written differently, the dynamics are wrong in about half of the piece, some sections are written in different octaves and it led me to start questioning what i can believe or trust. If you aren't a very experienced player this is definitely not for you. I wouldn't even reccomend this edition to a proffesional. The one good thing about it was the fingering. The fingering suggestions were excellent but you should be able to figure that out yourself anyways. If you need to find a different edition always go with the urtext henle. of course i learned this the hard way.

For the price I can't really complain, but it is definitely not my favorite Mozart piano book for several reasons. I guess you could use it for writing in (putting your own fingerings down etc and not feel guilty about marking this one up )

I love this book. I got it for 25 cents at a thrift store, and I've played out of it almost every day since then. I've always enjoyed a good sight reading challenge and this certainly provided one!

I have urtexts of some of these piano sonatas, and I would like to emphasize how helpful it is to be given recommended fingerings for certain passages, especially if one plans on playing these pieces without the help of an instructor. In addition, there tend to be fewer bars per page, which makes reading the music much easier.

I would not hesitate to recommend this product for anyone who wants to play Mozart's sonatas; it is better than the other books I have used.

I searched all over amazon, and I couldn't find an edition of the Mozart sonatas that I wanted, so I took my chances with this one based on the reviews of other books from the same publisher. It was exactly what I was looking for. It includes fingering, and although it is sometimes questionable, you can usually use it as a base to establish your own fingering. It tells you exactly how to do the trills, which is very helpful. The fact that it is not urtext definately adds to its appeal. While some people like urtext, I find the markings useful.

Unquestionably a great book!

I hated looking all over the place for these pieces and finding over simplified versions or incomplete sheets of music.This book carries the real thing:complete and complicated. By far one of the best books I ever bought!