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I have the Henle edition of Beethoven complete bagatelles but bagatelle no.25 in a minor the famous “Fur Elise” isn’t in it?

Does anyone else have this edition include this piece and if not then why is it not included?

It's included in Henle's "Beethoven Klavierstücke", but maybe the omission from the other book is that it does not have an opus number.

There’s one or two others as far as I know without opus number that are included in my edition.

That's right, Für Elise is not a Bagatelle. But on recordings usually it's included as if it were one.

Henle does not say why. I think the main purpose was to print the 3 main cycles 33, 119, 126. They included the isolated wwo52 which is curious but not woo59 nor woo56.

Beethoven composed quite a number of WoOs (if you get my drift ). Including some quite substantial numbers, like the frequently performed WoO 80 (32 Variations on an original theme in C minor) - check out Radu Lupu's recording, for instance.

He'd completely forgotten he ever wrote it: when he heard a friend playing it later, he asked "Whose is that?" On being told it was his, he exclaimed:"Mine? That piece of folly mine?? O Beethoven, what an ass you were!"

If he'd heard Für Elise played to him, he'd have exclaimed:"O Luddy, what a donkey you were!!".........partly because he never wrote it the way we hear it today .

Such an omission is a grave injustice!

For information, Barenreiter is preparing an edition of complete bagatelles by Beethoven in which they have included Fur Elise. The Bagatelle is not a well defined concept. It is a short and light piece for piano without any specific form. So a lot of pieces can be called a Bagatelle. I guess it is the choice of the composer to call a piece Bagatelle or something else. Given the history of the piece, the term bagatelle which suits well the music is not coming directly from Beethoven. So depending on the point of view one can consider that it is, or on the other hand is not, an actual bagatelle.

Great! 😂

It's in a new collection of miscellaneous pieces by Beethoven, published by Vienna Urtext.

https://www.universaledition.com/piano-pieces-for-piano-beethoven-ludwig-van-ut50295