Other early editions: violin (or viola) and piano (Siegel, arr. Popper)

Romanze, Op. 5, was Popper’s first independently published short piece. Prior to this, he had issued his Characterstücke, Op. 3. Popper’s freestanding short works tend to be somewhat longer and more expansive than the individual pieces contained within his multi-movement sets.

Composed in 1864 and published in 1867 by E. W. Fritzsch (plate E.W.F. 5 (60) L), Romanze was performed by Popper in late 1866 and early 1867, including at least one performance with its dedicatee, the pianist Anna Mehlig (1846–1928), in December 1866. The work was also issued in arrangements for violin and viola. It remains unclear whether the Romanze was conceived as a romantic gesture to Mehlig or simply as a tribute to friendship, yet its emotional intensity foreshadows the later Widmung, dedicated to Popper’s first wife, the pianist Sophie Menter.

(Excerpted from the preface to the Urtext edition by Yuriy Leonovich)