The Vienna research group (Wiener Arbeitsstelle) of the Johannes Brahms complete edition (Johannes Brahms Gesamtausgabe) was established on 1 December 2011 at the former Commission for Music Research (now Department of Musicology at the ACDH) as an international cooperation partner in a long-term musicological editing project. The new historical-critical edition is carried out at the Institute of Musicology at the Christian-Albrechts University Kiel, Germany. Unlike the ‘old’ complete edition of 1926/27, the new edition will publish all of Brahms’s works, including his piano reductions and piano arrangements as well as the arrangements and performance versions of works by other composers. Around 67 volumes of sheet music (including critical reports) are planned, which will be published by G. Henle, Munich. Performance material and study editions derived from these volumes will be published partly by G. Henle and partly by Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden.

Within the scope of the complete edition, all available sources will be consulted. Even fragmentary compositions, drafts and sketches will be collected, analysed in terms of their significance, and documented. A considerable number of these sources are kept in Viennese libraries and archives, first and foremost in the archive of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien, which houses Brahms’s extensive estate, including the composer’s manuscript copies. In addition, the Vienna City Library and the Austrian National Library also hold numerous valuable documents.

A volume of Brahms’s Lieder op. 84–97 (vol. VII, 5) is being prepared by the Vienna Working Group and is expected to be completed by 2027. Another focus is the analysis of Brahms’s reception as reflected in the Viennese press (a project on Brahms reception in Vienna, 1862–1902 has been funded by the City of Vienna). A further task is to index and analyse local manuscript sources that have not yet been considered by Brahms philologists, or only to a limited extent. This includes above all previously unpublished correspondence, but also music manuscripts and other written sources that can provide information about the creation, publication and performance history as well as the reception of Brahms’s works.