Dr. Goertzen is the editor of the newly published Urtext edition of the Bach Chaconne from Partita Nr. 2 in D minor, arranged by Brahms for piano, left hand. This soft-cover practical edition is based on a more detailed edition in a volume of the Johannes Brahms Collected Edition published in November 2017. Brahms's autograph manuscript, which once belonged to the pianist Paul Wittgenstein (who lost his right arm in WWI), is in the New York Public Library, along with the handwritten copy that served as the engraver's model and the proof (both revised by Brahms) for the first edition (published Leipzig: Senff, 1878). The Chaconne was a staple of the concerts of the famous violinist Joseph Joachim, who was Brahms's close friend.
Johannes Brahms was fascinated with J. S. Bach's magnificent work, which he said offered “a whole world of the deepest thoughts and the mightiest emotions” on a single staff. He arranged the Chaconne for left hand alone, writing enthusiastically to Clara Schumann: “A similar degree of difficulty, the manner of technique, the arpeggios – everything comes together to make me feel like a violinist!” The Henle Urtext edition by Valerie Woodring Goertzen is based on the text in her volume of the new Brahms Complete Edition. The soft-cover edition includes descriptions of the sources and a foreword detailing the compositional history of Brahms's ingenious arrangement.