Kevin Sutton writes:

>The Busoni's are highly edited.  For an uncluttered urtext edition,
>Henle is the only way to go.  Best quality paper and binding as well.

I'd like to put in a word for Hans Bischoff's 1888 edition which, in
addition to its other virtues, is inexpensively available from Kalmus.

Bischoff's edition is far from uncluttered.  Rather, it exposes the
scholarly apparatus right upon the page -- its main advantage.  Building
critically upon the then new Bach-Gesellschaft, Bischoff painstaking
re-collates all the extant sources, including some manuscript copies not
used by the BG.  If you, the performer, don't like the ms.  variant that
Bischoff selects for the main staves, you may easily pick one you like
better from the copious and Germanically thorough footnotes.

Here's what the New Grove 1980 says about Bischoff:

   "He was a leading figure among 19th-century German critical editors;
   his editions were exemplary for their time, and remain valuable. His
   critical editions of Bach's works include the first variorium edition
   of Das wohltemperirte Clavier."

It's true that Bischoff adds his own phrasing and dynamic marks
according to the very best 19th-century HIP practices.  <grin> But, more
progressively, he is careful and knowledgeable about ornamentation, and
generously provides the performer with alternate ways of realizing the
problematic marks.

Bischoff's tendency to discuss even the tiniest variants among sources
can be stupefying at times -- but it's an eye-opener for performers used
to "uncluttered urtext" editions in which crucial editorial decisions are
made behind the scenes, as if keyboardists were children who would be too
easily confused by such things.

Tom Davey
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