Sonatas - Book 1: Schirmer Library of Classics Vol. 1 (Schirmer's Library of Musical Classics, 1)

Lovely quality edition on good heavy paper that survives a quick page turn, and the footnotes are well thought out and helpful.

Bought this to replace my old copy which was in a bad way. I can enjoy playing my favourites again.

After purchasing the Dover publication a few years ago (of Beethoven's Sonatas Book 1), I was disappointed with the printing and binding quality, as well as the poor editing by Heinrich Schenker. I was very pleased however when I received these Schirmer editions, edited by Dr. Hans von Bulow and Dr. Sigmund Lebert. The paper used and printing is of much better quality, and similarly the editing (although not everything may be accurate for present day, modern performance) is much more respectful to the works and helpful for the pianist; with more accurate articulation, pedal markings, fingering, ossia staffs and appendix information given at the bottom of many pages to give the pianist a fuller understanding in learning and playing the pieces. The binding seems of better quality and held relatively strong to the spine, but I have not had the book for very long, so (like with many large music books) that may be my only concern with this publication in the future.Overall, I would highly recommend these Schirmer publications over many others (for around the same price), for any pianist wishing to learn Beethoven's Piano Sonatas to performing standard.

Big book of music, heavy to carry around, but a good quality book with all Beethoven's sonatas together. Easy to read.

Damaged back page and front page dirty but at least the music is in tact

I LOVE the Beethoven sonatas, and as my dilapidated old edition seemed at least 100 years old and was held together by a tiny piece of thread, it seemed time to get a new one! However, as I have been only focusing on the Pathetique, always opening the book to those pages has caused them to also be held on only by one strand, so I'm not really much better off (my old edition also has way more character). But for the price you get a lot of music, and I think that everyone who plays piano should learn Beethoven!!! :-)

Cheaper than Henle and others, this was an older used copy so printing was better. Newer Schirmer's printing and paper not as good as the ones I still have that are literally 70-80 years old. After the USPS lost a significant portion of my piano music that would cost many hundreds of dollars to replace and wouldn't pay up the insurance, I look for good used copies on Amazon. Often, used copies have useful markings by teachers. This volume contains the two most popular sonatas, "Moonlight" and "Pathetique." Sonata No. 1 is fun for novices to play as well.

Very nice book with many sonatas. I can’t wait to start playing!

I bought both of these volumes simply for the sake of completeness--I am neither an avid Beethoven player nor a musicologist--and I have to say that just having these gorgeous books in my library have inspired me to start learning a few! The books are paperback, but the covers are not at all cheap, it is heavy cardstock that stands up to use and abuse. The printing is clear and legible, and seems to be a facsimile of an older edition, but that's characteristic of Schirmer's. Both come with a full Thematic Index (showing the first substantial measure) of all 32 sonatas, allowing you to identify quickly which one is in which book. The best thing is that they are bound to lay flat, and I never have a problem trying to smooth down pages so that they don't flip over when I'm listening to or playing the pieces.I have only one small complaint. Although the footnotes are copious and incredibly helpful, at times the editor gets a little too excited about writing them. On the first page of one of the later sonatas, there is room for only two staffs, and then the rest of the page is covered in footnotes! It's not even really a complaint, because once the pieces are memorized the book's layout doesn't matter.Buy these books. You can't beat the price, and the quality is far above any expectation. Dover doesn't stand a chance.

great product

This collection of Beethoven sonatas was great condition, and delivered promptly. Very pleased.