Our Craft
Faithful to the original plates. Each edition prepared by hand.
The Source
Every edition in our catalogue begins with a historical engraving by one of the great houses of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: Breitkopf & Härtel of Leipzig, C.F. Peters of Leipzig, P. Jurgenson of Moscow, Universal Edition of Vienna, Durand of Paris. These are the editions that fixed the canon in print — the engravings that shaped how the repertoire was understood and performed for more than a century.
Sourcing from these originals is not a matter of prestige. It is a matter of accuracy. A third- or fourth-generation reprint carries the accumulated errors of each retypesetting. The original plates, correctly read, do not.
Written in the age of Beethoven. Restored for the age of the stand.
The Restoration
Historical engravings carry the marks of their age: foxing and discolouration from a century and a half on paper, ink spread at the edges of notes and slurs, page warp from binding pressure, occasional annotations left by later editors or performers. We correct these page by page — removing what accumulation has added without altering a single note, dynamic, articulation, or engraver's slur.
Each page is reviewed individually. Nothing is re-engraved. The stave lines, noteheads, text, and ornaments you read are the engraver's own work, not a reconstruction of it. We restore; we do not replace.
The Edition
The corrected pages are re-margined and prepared for modern print production at the dimensions that suit the repertoire — from pocket-sized chamber parts to full orchestral scores on larger sheets. Every edition is issued in both paperback and hardcover, and is available through Amazon worldwide, so that any copy can be in a musician's hands within days of the order.
Binding is chosen for the stand: a well-bound score should lie flat, open to any page, and hold that position through a rehearsal. The paper weight and page size follow the conventions the engraving house intended, wherever print production permits.
What We Do Not Do
We do not re-engrave. We do not editorially revise. We do not add fingerings, bowings, or performance suggestions of our own. If a slur in the source is ambiguous, we leave it ambiguous, as the composer and engraver left it. Our work is to make the historical source legible and durable for modern use — nothing more, nothing less.