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I see Henle versions of volume 1 and 2, and a French Durand edition.

Is one of these preferred, or is there a better edition?

Thanks for all comments.

Durand is the original publisher (right?) and could be considered urtext. Unfingered.

The preludes have fairly recently slipped out of copyright, so there are more choices. I haven't seen Henle. I have Vienna Urtext to replace my old Durand copy of Book 1 that fell apart. The VU seems well done, although their bindings are more difficult to break in than Henle's.

I've heard that the Durand Children's Corner is printed on tissue paper and falls apart. My Durands of both Preludes books are the brown-covered ones printed on better paper. My book one just fell apart from music school abuse over 20 years ago.

Edit--I'm referring to the older Durand edition.

Everyone recommends the Durand edition, which has historical weight behind it (I think it's the original publisher). But I find a lot of Durand to be small and smudgy. I have the Alfred Masterworks edition edited by Hinson, which has served me fine.

You might get a better answer if you tell us what makes an edition good for you:

(1) fingerings (and editorial comments)?
(2) trustworthy accuracy / scholarship?
(3) ease of reading?

I find Henle excels at (3), but sometimes-- and it took me a long time to realize this-- it totally fails at (2).

-J

Durand if you ask me. Durand was Debussy's publisher, and is overall trustworthy. With Ravel, who also had Durand as his publisher, things are a bit complicated - Ravel made certain mistakes in his scores which he pointed out to various performers, who after Ravel had died were complaining to Durand about that these mistakes were still in the score. Durand did not agree to making any changes that did not come from the composer, so the scores are as they are. One of my teachers who studied with the Ravel pupil Vlado Perlemuter mentioned that Perlemuter was nagging about Durand, that he had given up all hope on that they would ever change anything (and up until this day, he is correct).

This problem is much less relevant when discussing Debussy however - there are some very minor mistakes perhaps (I can recall one or two in the Etudes), but the text is more or less correct as it is. And the more recent Durand edition makes mention of different sources, and compares them carefully. What I also like is that while the Henle versions are usually full of all sorts of lousy fingerings, the Durand version is a more 'clean text' as such.

Hope that helps!

I believe that the 'budget' option Dover might have an edition with the Preludes, too...? That might be worth considering, especially if you want something cheaper (but still quite good).

Some (not all) of Durand scores have the old prints, which means bad print and paper and errors... Not happy about this at all.

I was thinking of the recent Durand editions. Some of them have been edited by Claude Helffer (the Etudes, for example. Perhaps the Preludes too?), and are very careful with all of these things in my opinion.

Thanks, all -- I have ordered the Durand edition. We'll see if I need to supplement it with one of the others.

Appreciate all the advice!

You have done a good choice! Enjoy!

I just got some barenreiter for Debussy and they are just awesome as print, layout and overall quality of the book. I also have Durand.