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The "Other" Diabelli Variations · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
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  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  You can subscribe to The Piano Maven podcast
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  by going to the Substack link in our episode
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  description, and I have a Substack page devoted
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  to The Piano Maven podcast. And if you take out
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  a paid subscription, you will get... monthly
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  downloads at the beginning of each month and
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  other goodies from time to time throughout the
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  year. But thank you so much for considering taking
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  out a subscription because it will help keep
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  this podcast going throughout the year. I'm going
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  to talk about the 33 Variations on a Waltz by
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  Diabelli, but not Beethoven's composition. but
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  rather the 33 Diabelli Variations by the German
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  composer and pianist named Franz Hummel, who
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  lived from 1939 until 2022. As a pianist, Franz
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  Hummel's gifts were recognized and encouraged
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  by such luminaries as the pianist Elie Nye, the
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  conductor Hans Knoppertsbusch, and even Richard
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  Strauss. During the 1960s and 70s, Franz Hummel
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  made a good number of piano recordings. According
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  to one website, Hummel was credited for making
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  over 60 LPs that... encompassed the entire classical
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  and modern repertoire. I myself have not heard
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  nor seen any of these LPs, although every once
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  in a while a Franz Hummel piano LP turns up on
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  eBay. Recently, I saw on eBay that somebody was
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  selling a copy of Franz Hummel playing the Liszt
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  B minor sonata, and the price looked pretty reasonable.
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  But then when I looked at the $50 shipping cost,
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  I thought, nah, forget about it. Although I am
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  genuinely curious. Anyway, Franz Hummel basically
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  stopped concertizing in 1973. In order to devote
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  himself exclusively to composition, although
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  he did make at least one piano recording as an
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  improviser, collaborating with the violinist
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  Liana, Izakadze. I hope I'm pronouncing your
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  name right. Anyway, this is a two -CD set of
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  these fantastic free improvisations for piano
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  and violin. It came out on a two -disc release
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  called Maximal Music. It was on the Artenova
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  label. As a composer, Franz Hummel was pretty
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  prolific. His output included symphonic and ballet
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  scores, chamber music, many operas. and some
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  large -scale piano pieces. Recordings of Hummel's
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  compositions are not easy to source, although
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  you can find quite a few things on YouTube. But
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  in general, it's hard to pinpoint Hummel's multifaceted
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  gifts and stylistic preferences. At least I have
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  trouble doing so. Example, he has this violin
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  concerto, which is basically a half hour's worth
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  of gnarly dissonance and grand gestures that
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  somehow holds your attention, but the music has
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  almost no charm whatsoever. And then his second
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  piano sonata is kind of interesting. It's very
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  well -crafted piano writing that is kind of busy
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  and relentless. I describe it. sort of as the
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  love child of Ferruccio Busoni and Roger Sessions,
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  for lack of coming up with something more clever
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  to say. But I actually think that his most interesting
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  and fascinating solo piano opus is that original
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  set of 33 variations that Franz Hummel composed
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  on that very same Diabelli waltz that... Beethoven
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  used for his opus 120 set of 33 variations. As
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  you would expect, of course, Franz Hummel's harmonic
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  language is quite different than Beethoven's.
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  It touches upon the expanded tonality that you
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  often get from Busoni's works or in a composer
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  like maybe Ronald Stevenson, who was very much
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  influenced by Busoni. In the Hummel Diabelli
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  Variations, you do hear the bass lines outlining
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  the original Diabelli waltz. And on top of these
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  bass lines, there are passages and chords or
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  arpeggios or runs that take basically 19th century
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  ideas and put them in 21st century clothing,
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  if that makes any sense to you. Many of Hummel's
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  textural ideas take their cue from Beethoven,
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  and actually the eighth variation of the Hummel
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  set liberally quotes from Beethoven's Eighth
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  Symphony. This is a very weird variation. And
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  Variation 9, the one that comes right after that,
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  it gravitates around the C major home key, but
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  with a lot of diversion along the road. Adagio
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  Cantabile Variation 11 also can't really make
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  up its mind what key it's in, but it's fun to
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  listen to it and to try and guess. And here's
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  an interesting variation, the 16th variation.
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  totally relates texturally speaking to the Chopin
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  Prelude No. 16 in that the bass has the rhythm
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  of ba -ba -ba -ba -ba -ba -ba -ba -ba -ba -ba,
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  you know, with bass lines and alternating. where
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  you're kind of jumping. It's sort of like a stride
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  piano. And the right hand plays relentless, fast
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  16th notes. So it's kind of like Chopin's 16th
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  Prelude from Op. 28, turned middle inside out.
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  And there are a lot of other stylistic and compositional
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  allusions and borrowings that are done very creatively,
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  I must say. Now, when I first heard this work,
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  the Franz Hummel Diabelli Variations, I felt
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  that while the variations in and of themselves
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  were undeniably clever, I didn't really get a
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  sense of a grand design and cumulative trajectory
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  that I get from the Beethoven work. But maybe
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  that's not quite the point of Franz Hummel's
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  piece. This piece has really grown on me over
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  the years when I come to revisit it, and I look
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  at the score every once in a while, and it's
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  not very easy to play, although I've enjoyed
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  kind of picking through it and savoring a lot
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  of the details, and I think there's a lot more
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  to this music than I gave it credit for years
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  ago. There are two commercial recordings of the
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  Franz Hummel Diabelli Variations. One is on the
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  Neos label. It features pianist Carmen Piazzini.
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  This was the world premiere recording, and it
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  was coupled with the Beethoven Diabelli variations
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  in a two -CD set. And then in 2014, there was
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  a recording by Angela Cholakian that came out
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  on the TX Art label. Both of these recordings
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  are really, really fine, and it's hard for me
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  to choose between them because both are excellent.
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  So I just say that whichever of these you find
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  first, that's the one to buy, I suppose. But
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  this is an interesting piece, and definitely
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  check it out. Franz Hummel's Variations on the
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  Theme by Diabelli, composed in 2006 and 2007.
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  This is Jed Disler, and you've been listening
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  to The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide
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  to piano recordings. Thank you for tuning in,
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  and I look forward to being with you for our
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  next episode.