A few years ago we published the “Elephant” from the “Carnival of the Animals”. The curtain now rises for a further performance: the proud and elevated solo of the “Swan”. Charles-Joseph Lebouc organised the première of this work and also played the cello part. With the composer’s permission, he then adapted this sonorous romance, accompanied by two pianos in the original, for violoncello and one piano. We are presenting the first ever Urtext edition of this popular cello work. The second piano part is reproduced in small print, thus permitting a comparison of the two versions.

G. Henle Publishers stands for Urtext sheet music of the highest quality. The Urtext editions not only provide the undistorted and authoritative musical text but are also aesthetically pleasing, optimised for practical use and extremely durable. And then there is the strong, distinctive blue profile: (almost) all of the Urtext editions are bound in the characteristic blue cardboard.

Musicians trust Henle's blue Urtext editions because they:

• provide an undistorted, reliable and authoritative musical text
• offer superb, aesthetically appealing music engraving
• are optimised for practical use (page turns, fingerings)
• are of high quality and durable (cover, paper, binding)
• contain a short preface that introduces the work (particularly useful for AMEB exams) in German, English and French, as well as explanatory footnotes for particularly interesting passages in the score
• contain a description of the sources, an evaluation of the sources, readings and a documentation of the corrections made (= "Critical Report") in German and English, and often also in French