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A Deep Dive into Beethoven's Diabelli Variations · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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This is Jed Distler and welcome to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano
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A free subscription is perfectly fine too because then you get all of the podcasts,
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you get to hear them, but all the extras, that's for the paid subscribers.
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This month we launched our second season of podcast episodes with a marathon mini series
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covering 64 recordings with 64 pianists in the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas and without
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repeating any pianist in any sonata.
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That was really quite a challenge and a feat of discographical ingenuity on my part, but
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we did it and I thank you all for your encouragement and your feedback and all of your correspondence.
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That was really, really fantastic and I'm so happy that we could go through all of this
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together.
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So I've decided to stretch out this Beethoven mini series a little bit.
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First of all, we had a bonus episode yesterday about recorded cycles of the nine Beethoven
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symphonies in the piano transcriptions by Franz Liszt and today, because this is the
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last day of the week and it's the last day of the month, we have another bonus episode
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for you and we're going to set out on a deep dive into Beethoven's monumental variations
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on a waltz by Diabelli, Opus 120, the Diabelli Variations.
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This was Beethoven's last major length solo piano work and by far, it is the largest work
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that Beethoven ever composed for solo piano.
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I've picked 15 recorded versions of the Diabelli Variations to discuss on this episode.
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Some of you may know about certain of these versions, but others on the list may not be
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so well known to you.
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Now I know that I will be leaving out quite a few important recorded versions on my list
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of 15 and I'm leaving them out mainly because these are relatively familiar recordings among
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piano mavens and when people discuss the Diabelli Variations, these versions usually come up
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as references and there's a general critical consensus about them.
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So as such, I won't be going into detail about recordings by Rudolf Sirken or Claudio Aurao
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or Daniel Barenboim or Sviatoslav Richter or that other Sirken, Peter Sirken, and I won't
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be talking about that influential premiere recording of the Diabellis that Artur Schnabel
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made in 1937, which is still absolutely fabulous.
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And you really don't need to hear my opinions about these because you can actually read
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what I wrote about them in an overview of Diabelli Variations recordings that was published
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in Gramophone in 2015 and I know many versions have come to light since 2015, but I think
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this article really covers a great bit of ground.
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So I've posted a link to that article in our episode description along with links to some
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of the recordings that I will be discussing.
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But before we dive into the recordings proper, I thought I should tell you the Diabelli Variations
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backstory.
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I'm sure some of you already know this story, but for the benefit of piano mavens new to
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the Diabelli Variations, I think you will find the story interesting.
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At least I hope you will.
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If you had anything to do with music in early 19th century Vienna, you couldn't ignore Anton
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Diabelli, try as one might.
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You just had a deal with this guy.
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He was a real man about town.
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He wrote tons of music and he wrote tons of teaching pieces.
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And to top that off, he was a successful music publisher and he had a flair for self-promotion
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that probably would rival any of these young pianists I see who flood social media with
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posts like, I'm waiting for you at Carnegie Hall this week, or posts like, my office today,
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the Steinway showroom, or pianists who post endless selfies with Martha Argerich before
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she even had a chance to say no, don't take a picture with me.
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I once had a sit at a dinner party with a certain pianist years ago.
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This is long before smartphones were invented.
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And this pianist kept pulling out photos out of his wallet.
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Oh, here's me with Aaron Copeland.
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Here's me with Luciano Pavarotti.
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Oh, here I am with Stephen Sondheim.
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And here I am with Leonard Bernstein.
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And I was just getting so irritated.
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So I turned around and I said, oh, wow, Leonard Bernstein.
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Oh, my God, that's so impressive.
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How did Leonard Bernstein ever get to have his picture taken with you?
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And of course, my sarcasm and my irony was totally lost on this jerk, who, as it happened,
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never wound up having a real piano career.
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But getting back to Anton Diabelli, what an opportunist he was.
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In 1819, he decided to launch one of his biggest projects.
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He wrote this short and rather innocuous waltz.
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And then he sent this waltz out to more than 50 composers, who he called the foremost tone
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poets and virtuosi of Vienna and the Austrian states.
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And Diabelli requested from each of these 50 personages that each of them would compose
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a variation on his waltz.
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The combined variations then would be gathered together and published by Diabelli's firm
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under the rather pompous title Watterlandescher Kunstlerverein.
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Oh, would you like to be part of a collection with that name?
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Maybe so if they paid me enough.
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All the composers approached and who accepted were Schubert, Hamon, Archduke Rudolf, Mozart's
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son, Karl Czerny, and this 11-year-old prodigy named Fromm's List.
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And at the top of this list of 50 composers was this guy named Ludwig van Beethoven.
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So the legend states that Beethoven saw this waltz and he thought, oh, this is ridiculous.
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He dismissed the waltz as a Schusterfleck, which means a cobbler's patch.
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And then he turned Diabelli's proposal flat down.
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But then he offered instead a small group of variations for a price.
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Now whether or not that story is true, the fact is is that when Beethoven got this waltz,
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he kind of became intrigued.
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And then he started writing one variation on it.
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And then he wrote another and then another and another.
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And it just seemed like he couldn't stop.
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And he completed 23 variations by the summer of 1819.
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Then he set these variations aside for a few years.
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And then he came back to them and he added a few more variations.
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And eventually he completed the work by early 1823.
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And the end result was 33 variations.
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Now the totality of this must have taken Anton Diabelli totally by surprise.
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Not being the wily publisher that he was, he was no fool.
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So he brought out Beethoven's 33 variations as part one of the Vaterlandescher Künstler
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Verrein and then the other composers' variations comprised part two.
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So let's get to the recordings.
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Because of the work's great length and wide range of techniques from outright parody and
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raving virtuosity to contrapuntal rigor and spacious lyricism, the Diabelli variations
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are as challenging for a performer to hold together as they are for a listener to fully
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absorb the music's deceptively complex architecture and rather uncompromising time scale.
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My great friend and late colleague Harris Goldsmith once described three basic interpretive
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approaches to the Diabelli variations.
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Certain interpreters, he said, strive for a cumulative emotional effect by building
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drama and momentum within larger groups of variations.
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And then by contrast, you have some pianists who aim to give each variation its own particular
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voice, treating them as separate structural or intellectual entities.
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Then there are those pianists who are primarily concerned with pianism per se and the work's
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potential for virtuosic scintillation and surface excitement.
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In most respects, the cumulative approach is the most difficult one to bring off, yet
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arguably the most rewarding of them to bring off of these three approaches.
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And the cumulative approach definitely characterizes the Arter Schnabel and Rudolf Sierken and
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Claudio Arrao recordings.
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But the earliest recording that I'm going to recommend on this list of 15 that I'm
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proposing goes more for the variation by variation approach, giving each one its own character.
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But still, there's a sense of unity about this performance.
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And this is a recording that Harris Goldsmith used to talk to me about all the time.
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It finally appeared on CD some years ago after years of my kvetching and complaining and
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trying to convince the powers that be that it should be reissued.
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And it's a recording that features the Swiss pianist Paul Baumgartner.
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And his recording of the Diabelli variations for the Deutsche Grammophon label dates from
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1952.
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It's very well engineered for its time.
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And the recording captures Baumgartner's warm, full-body tone and wide dynamic range in a
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slightly distant, yet very realistic concert hall kind of perspective.
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And Baumgartner's pianism and musicianship are quite distinctive.
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There are a lot of wonderful details to savor in this performance.
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The very flexible rubato in variation number three.
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Or how Baumgartner's subtle cross-rhythmic accentuation in that really fast tenth variation
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makes the music sound much faster than it actually goes in this performance.
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And the slow minor key variations have great lyricism and repose.
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And they hardly prepare you for how Baumgartner literally pounces on the fugue, which is variation
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32.
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He sounds like Rudolf Sierkin in Heat.
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This recording was reissued on CD by Australian Eloquence.
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And it was coupled with Erich Tenberg playing Max Rager's notoriously tedious Telemann variations.
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And this disc also found its way into the recent Eloquence Piano Library box set, containing
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lots of cool piano rarities from Deutsche Grammophon's back catalog.
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I'm going to do a podcast episode about these piano library boxes pretty soon.
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Now for the all-out virtuoso vehicle approach to the Diabelli variations.
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I can think of one recording in particular that I really like.
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It's the second of the two Diabelli variations recordings that Julius Ketchen made.
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He was that great American pianist born in 1926, and he tragically died young of cancer
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in 1969.
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He was only 43.
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Now his first recording of the Diabellis from 1953 is relatively contained when compared
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to his more hectic and completely abandoned brand of virtuosity that is on display in
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this 1960 stereo remake, which I have a sneaking affection for.
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I mean, it's kind of superficial in some ways, but it's so much fun to listen to, I have
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to admit.
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I've always called this 1960 recording the Oscar Peterson Diabelli Variations because
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Julius Ketchen's playing reminds me of Oscar Peterson's flash and ebullient virtuosity
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and drive as a jazz pianist.
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So we have to talk now about Alfred Brendel, mainly because I didn't recommend any of his
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Beethoven sonata recordings on our Sonata miniseries, and some of you listeners took
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me to task over that.
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And I totally understand where you're coming from, and I suppose I kind of feel guilty,
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even though I've always felt that the most consistent aspect of Alfred Brendel's artistry
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was his inconsistency.
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But look, you can't deny that he had a major international career.
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And I did hear him play many times in concert, and in fact, some of these performances I'll
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never forget.
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I heard him play some exquisite Mozart, for example.
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I heard him give an amazingly powerful and intense performance of Liszt's Weinenklagen-Zorgen-Zoggen
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Variations, and it literally shook me from the seat.
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I will never forget that performance.
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But I also heard him play the second most boring Diabelli Variations live performance
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that I ever experienced in my life.
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Who was the most boring one from?
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That was from Maurizio Polini.
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But then at the same concert, Polini played some incredible Stockhausen and Schoenberg
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afterward.
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It sounded like a whole different pianist.
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Anyway, Alfred Brendel has four commercial recordings of the Diabellis to his credit.
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The first one was for the Vox label, and it's a good performance, but it's a little on
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the earnest side, shall we say.
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But his three versions released by Phillips I think are light years better.
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The first one of these was a live performance from London's Royal Festival Hall in 1976,
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or was it 75?
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I can't remember.
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And then there was a studio recording from 1988, and then another live performance also
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from Royal Festival Hall from 2001.
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Brendel himself favored the 2001 performance over the other recordings, and it's definitely
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the most spontaneous and unified of the four recordings, even though there are some telltale
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signs that he's not quite mustering up the energy he had when he was younger, I'm talking
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about in the 1976 live recording.
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But on the other hand, in 2001, Brendel judges the silences with more humor, and he makes
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more contrast between the different tempos in Variation 21.
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So I kind of go back and forth between both live versions, but I think that Alfred Brendel's
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1988 studio recording seems to split the difference between all of the interpretive factors in
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all of these recordings.
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And also the sonics are warmer, and Brendel also has the advantage of studio editing,
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although the live recordings are impressively accurate in and of themselves.
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But I think the 1988 recording overall gives the best account of Brendel's conception,
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and I'm very happy to have it in my collection.
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I want to mention Stephen Kovacevich when he was 21.
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When he was 21, never stop at Jed.
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Anyway, when Stephen Kovacevich was 21 years old, he made his London debut at Wigmore Hall,
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playing the Diabelli Variations.
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And then seven years later, in 1968, he recorded it for Phillips.
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I've always liked this recording.
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It's a very straightforward interpretation.
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Perhaps some details seem slightly studied or pre-planned, but the music's dramatic trajectory
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slowly reveals itself as the performance progresses, almost catching you unaware.
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And the controlled fury that Kovacevich unleashes in the fugue gently transitions into the concluding
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minuetto, which gives the feeling of decompressing after a long journey.
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But as much as I admire this recording, and it is a classic in its way, I feel that the
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recording that Stephen Kovacevich made 40 years later for the Onyx label is much bigger
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and emotionally broader in scope.
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It's gutsier and it's looser in many ways and more expressively three-dimensional and
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robust.
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So, basically, these two recordings represent two different sides of Stephen Kovacevich
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and the Diabelli Variations at different times in his career.
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And I guess I could say that in my head, I'd lean toward the Phillips version, but in my
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heart, I go for the remake.
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So I'm not going to really choose between both of them.
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Okay, maybe I'll choose the later one.
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I actually picked the later recording as my top choice in that Gramophone article, but
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I am very happy to have both of these recordings in my collection.
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Somewhat in the intellectualized style of the first Kovacevich recording is a performance
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by a pianist and scholar whose name is Michael Oelbaum, and he recorded the Diabellis in
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1985.
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It first came out on a small label on LP.
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I think it was called OO Records.
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I can't remember.
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I had that LP for about five minutes.
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But many years later, the Bridge label issued this on CD.
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And I remember that on the LP, I think also on the CD, there was a blurb from Murray Paraya,
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and he praised Michael Oelbaum's Diabelli Variations for his attention to voice leading,
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structure, and line.
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And it is a very detailed interpretation and a very thoughtful performance in that sense.
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You notice a little extra kick to the imitative entrances in Variation No. 5 and the beautiful
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shaping of Variation 24, which is a fugato.
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The 16th and 17th variations don't really take off like a rocket here, as you would
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expect them to do, but they still generate excitement.
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And I think the tempo relationships unifying the final group of minor key variations are
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judged here to perfection.
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It's a very gratifying recording still, and I enjoy it.
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I met Michael Oelbaum years ago at a party, and we talked a little bit about this recording.
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But the strange thing is that he does not seem to have made any other solo piano recordings
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other than this one, at least as far as I know.
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But I guess if you're going to make only one commercial solo piano recording, it might
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as well be a really good one of the Diabelli Variations, right?
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The American pianist Daniel Shapiro, who is on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute
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of Music, recorded the Diabelli Variations for his solo CD debut.
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It's on the Azika label.
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I'm not sure if you can still source the physical disc.
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Maybe you can find it as a download.
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But this is one of my favorite versions of the Diabellis on record.
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It's technically super, super solid.
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It's really scrupulous over detail, but not to the point of being overly obsessive or
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anal.
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And it's both intellectually and emotionally cohesive.
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Daniel Shapiro affects fluid tempo relationships that effortlessly bind the variations, and
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this is the cumulative approach at its best.
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Yet he also takes trouble to characterize the differences between variations.
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Variation number nine, for example, is hearty and gruff, and it embodies an entirely different
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sound world compared to the feathery lightness of those scampering variations like numbers
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10 and 19 and 23.
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Maybe you don't get the kind of dark and brooding introspection that you hear from Schnabel
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or Aurao, but there are no quirks or exaggerations.
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This is just intelligent, stylish, and communicative music making all around.
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That's Daniel Shapiro.
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And here is a sleeper of a Diabelli Variations from a totally unexpected source, perhaps.
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This is with the French pianist Cécile Husset.
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During the 1970s, she had a brief yet very rewarding relationship with the French branch
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of the DECA label, and her main project for DECA was a set of five LPs devoted to Beethoven's
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complete sets of variations.
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And there was a 1984 interview with her where the pianist expressed regret that these recordings
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had long been deleted because she remembered working so hard on them.
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But Australian eloquence brought out a box set of Cécile Husset's complete DECA recordings
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a few years ago.
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And you readily hear that all of her hard work really paid off, and then some.
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Her Diabelli Variations are fantastic.
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They have everything.
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They have virtuosity and concentration, intensity, diversity of character, great humor, and heartfelt
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lyricism.
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And it's an interpretation that's always alive, and I highly recommend that you listen to
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it.
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And another sleeper of a Diabelli Variations features a pianist whom you are not likely
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to have heard of, or maybe you have, but this guy is absolutely wonderful.
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I have fallen in love with his playing pretty recently.
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His name is Daniel Hoxer.
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He was born in 1945.
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His recording of the Diabellis dates from 1988, and I happened to have found it in a
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thrift store many years ago for something like 99 cents.
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And I have to say, I got quite the bargain.
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First of all, this recording is fabulously engineered, beautiful sound quality.
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And secondly, this is scrupulous and refined and pinpointed playing and music making that
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maybe some people would call a little too objective, but it's never detached.
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I would imagine the tonal calibrations and super specificity of balance that you get
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from somebody like Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli in his prime, welded onto Rudolf Sierkin's
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Fidelity to the Score.
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And if you combine those two images, you'll get an idea of what this performance is like.
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And by the way, Daniel Hoxer also recorded a fantastic Bach Goldberg variations.
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That's a whole other story.
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But if you want the physical CD of Daniel Hoxer's Diabelli variations at a decent price,
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good luck trying to find it.
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But if you do find it at a good price, definitely buy it.
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I'm happy to have it in my collection, but I will say that you can find tons of Daniel
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Hoxer recordings on YouTube, and I've provided a link to this YouTube page that has a whole
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bunch of Daniel Hoxer recordings.
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And if you scroll down the page, you will find a link to this recording of the Diabelli
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variations.
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So definitely check that out.
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Now we get to the quirky, quote unquote, personality recordings.
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I have always been fascinated by the Diabelli variations that Olli Mustonen made for RCA
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Victor in the 1990s.
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Now to say that his approach is individual is to say that Niagara Falls has water.
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Basically, Olli Mustonen knocks this work off of its cerebral pedestal, and he kind
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of goes mano a mano with Beethoven's sardonic humor and rabble-rousing kind of rhythmic
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mischief.
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It is true that Olli Mustonen is very spare with pedaling, and as a result, many passages
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might sound a little too dry for your taste.
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But when he does slam the pedal down, my goodness, you certainly notice, and he is a real master
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of finger legato.
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He often exaggerates the articulation, and his liberal robatos often run amok.
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But he justifies this somehow with very carefully worked out temper relationships and transitions
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between variations.
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Certainly there's no more theatrical or unabashedly entertaining recording of the Diabellis out
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there.
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And however you may feel in the end, you do have to concede that Olli Mustonen realizes
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his conception to the nth degree.
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I'm going to digress now from this list a little bit because I'm going to mention two
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recordings that I do not recommend, so we're going to have a little detour.
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One of these Diabelli variations recordings is with the pianist Anatole Ugorski.
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It was for Deutsche Grammophon.
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And he basically sprays interpretive graffiti throughout the work, like a graffiti artist
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gone wild in the subways in the early 1980s.
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I wrote in Grammophon magazine that when I first heard this recording many years ago,
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it made me feel dirty all over.
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Well, first of all, Ugorski totally overdoes the waltz theme's dynamics.
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And then he plods through variation one's funeral march with both feet in the grave.
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That's the way it sounds.
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And then he stretches out variations 14 and variations 29 to narcoleptic extremes.
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I mean, it's almost unlistening.
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And the way that he monkeys around with variation 18 really renders this music totally unrecognizable.
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That crazy Longacellarondo he makes into this variation's first section has nothing to do
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with Beethoven.
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It has everything to do with Anatole Ugorski's ego.
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It may be true that those pronounced changes in tempo that Beethoven wants in variation
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21 are super clear in this performance, but that's only because Ugorski clarifies them
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with the least amount of subtlety possible so that no dullard will miss the point.
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And here's another anti-recommendation.
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You know, usually the playing time for the D-belly variations falls between 55 minutes
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or 56 minutes.
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Well, when Grammophon sent me a recording by the Danish pianist Kristina Bjorko, I looked
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at the total timing on the cover that it gave for 72 and a half minutes.
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And I thought, well, that's got to be a misprint.
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That's got to be some kind of a joke.
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There's a problem there.
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Well, evidently not.
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It was a 72 minute performance.
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And you just have to hear how slowly and tentatively she plays the theme.
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And the defiant slow march that characterizes variation number one has never been rendered
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so soft and spineless as it is here.
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Variation number eight is marked poco vivace, right?
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Well here, it's like largo.
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It's a dead crawl.
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And variation 11's allegretto marking disintegrates before your very eyes and ears.
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And you know that famous variation 13 that's marked vivace, you know, that question and
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answer, bam, ba-dum, eh, eh, bam, ba-dum, wa, wa.
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You know, here, the music goes so slowly that the joke totally disappears.
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You know, the slow variation number 14, that usually takes four minutes to play.
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Well, guess what her timing is here.
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It takes eight minutes.
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And also variations 18 and 21 go in slow motion.
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She also screws up the rhythm a little bit in that variation number 22, you know, the
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one based on Mozart's notte giomo facica from Don Giovanni.
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Now once in a while, this pianist gets things right, but this is definitely the most bizarre
33:48
Diabelli variations I've heard.
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Well, maybe Anatol Ugorski is equally bizarre.
33:55
But these two are ones to avoid.
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And then I guess this is just an aside because you can't find this disc anywhere.
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There was a really strange release that came out on a tiny label in the 1990s.
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It's a recording where the late pianist Susan Halligan recorded the Diabelli variations
34:17
on the piano in a so-called historical tuning, specifically the tuning of Kürnberger III
34:24
and for those who know more about tunings and temperament that I do, that information
34:30
will be of some use to you.
34:32
But the weird thing about this release was that this violinist named Paul List was credited
34:40
on the release and on the cover and on the label and everywhere else for directing her
34:47
interpretation.
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So the credit reads, the Diabelli variations played by Susan Halligan with Paul List, with
34:55
Paul List.
34:56
And he's credited for directing her interpretation.
35:00
Now he wasn't a pianist and he wasn't at the piano, but basically he told Susan Halligan
35:06
how to play this piece and how to shape the interpretation as if she was almost a kind
35:12
of surrogate mother carrying Paul List's interpretive baby to term.
35:18
Obviously, Susan Halligan was willing to be a pianist, a conduit to Paul List's musical
35:24
vision.
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But with all this in mind, the performance really didn't strike me as anything unusual
35:31
or special beyond a decent workaday Diabelli variations played with an unusual tuning.
35:40
Anyway, the recording is long out of print, so there's really no point in talking about
35:46
it.
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But if you want historic tuning on a real period instrument, I think the best of the
35:53
period instrument Diabelli variations recordings out there comes from Andreas Steyer on the
35:59
Harmonia Mundi label.
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One thing I love about this release has to do with the programming.
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First, Andreas Steyer plays the original Diabelli waltz and he follows it with eight contrasting
36:13
variations on the waltz by eight of the composers whom Diabelli invited to contribute to that
36:19
anthology we talked about earlier.
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And then after that, Andreas Steyer improvises a Beethoven-like interlude that leads right
36:30
into the Beethoven work, and his interpretation, I think, is stunning.
36:36
It has impeccably judged tempo relationships, really angular phrasing with a lot of bite
36:43
and character that Artur Schnabel would have really loved.
36:46
There's a strong sense of drama.
36:49
The accents really sting and they're in your face.
36:53
Every note has life and purpose, and that includes Steyer's spontaneous flourishes and
37:00
embellishments and his whimsical changes of voicings on the repeats.
37:06
His gruff forte piano, by the way, features built-in percussion stops, and I love how
37:13
he takes creative yet tasteful advantage of them for the most part.
37:18
You hear this in that Don Giovanni variation, number 22, but the most fun is in the variation
37:25
23, where you have cymbal crashes on those big banging chords.
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You know, bang, b-bl-bl-bl-bl, bang.
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You know, there's a cymbal crash on those bangs.
37:36
My friend David Hurwitz likes to call this variation the bang, scamper, scamper, scamper,
37:42
scamper variation.
37:44
Maybe some listeners will take offense at the cymbal crashes, because, you know, Beethoven
37:49
didn't write a cymbal crash, so why play a cymbal crash?
37:52
But come on, let Andreas Steyer have his fun.
37:57
And he does get really serious in the minor key variations, and he just lets the music
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sing out as eloquently as it can.
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This is a fabulous Diabelli variations, and certainly it is my favorite among all of the
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period instrument versions out there in catalog land.
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There have been quite a few excellent recent versions of the Diabellis on modern instruments,
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and I'm not going to go into great detail about them, because I've reviewed most of
38:28
them, either for Gramophone or for ClassicsToday.com, and you can look up the reviews as you see
38:34
fit.
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The pianist Mei Fang has a very subjective, yet very purposeful, and I think quite convincing
38:43
recording on the Centaur label, and it really held my attention when I first heard it.
38:49
She's a pianist who really makes you listen, and so does Martin Helmschenn, who brings
38:55
great musical and pianistic distinction to his recording on the Alpha label.
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I think it's every bit as good, and well, almost every bit as good as the recording
39:05
by Igor Levitt, which got a lot of attention and critical praise, and justifiably so.
39:13
He takes the theme at a true Vivace, he slightly underplays the accents, and he projects the
39:20
first variations maestoso chords with springing intensity, and he brings wonderful airborne
39:28
lightness to that presto, variation number 10.
39:31
In the fugue, variation 32, Igor Levitt's dry point and slightly detached yet buoyant
39:40
and energetic articulation will probably surprise listeners who are accustomed to heavier, more
39:46
declamatory readings.
39:50
In this sense and in other respects, Levitt is kind of a mirror to the spirit, and sometimes
39:58
the letter of Peter Serkin's two Diabelli recordings, the one for RCA and the one for
40:04
the Pro Arte label, which perhaps I should have mentioned more in detail in this podcast,
40:11
because these two are also major Diabelli contenders.
40:16
At the opposite pole resides Martino T. Remo.
40:21
His performance is deliberate and monumental, with no detail left unscrutinized, but in
40:29
his hands the music always moves, if you know what I mean.
40:34
If Igor Levitt's Diabellis resembles somebody like Charles McHarris conducting Beethoven,
40:42
then Martino T. Remo resembles Otto Klemperer in his prime, and you don't so much feel like
40:49
you're hearing a performance than you are experiencing a catharsis.
40:55
I also should mention the most recent recording of the Diabellis by Mitsuko Ushita.
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This got rave reviews in Gramophone and it won Gramophone's 2022 Piano Recording of
41:08
the Year award.
41:09
I think I voted for something else in that year.
41:12
But this is a remarkable recording in many respects.
41:15
You only have to hear variation number one, where Ushita generates tension within those
41:22
obsessive funeral march dotted phrases by giving the dissonances their full weight and
41:29
also varying her articulation of accents and points of emphasis.
41:35
She doesn't just play the notes, in other words.
41:38
Her expressive distensions of phrase and the third variation always occur when you least
41:45
expect them, while variation number five's repeated notes are sprung with lilting restraint.
41:52
And I like how variation seven's strategically delayed sforzandos achieve a kind of power
42:02
and gravitas that you don't always get.
42:05
But these delays never sound preplanned or mannered.
42:08
They feel very organic.
42:10
Now, these may sound like kind of arcane details, but what I'm trying to say is that Mitsuko
42:17
Ushita probes every nook and cranny in this piece.
42:22
Maybe her preplanning gets the better of her, where she might telegraph her intentions more
42:29
than surprise you with them.
42:31
But on the whole, this is a very special release, and if you like the Diabelli variations, you
42:37
really should hear it.
42:39
However, however, if I had to pick just one Diabelli variations recording to take with
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me to the proverbial desert island, and this may be a choice that will surprise you, or
42:53
maybe not, this is not a Diabelli variations recording that gets talked about a lot.
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But I think it may well be my personal favorite.
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It's a 1977 recording with the pianist Charles Rosen.
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It came out in the United States on LP on the Peters International label, but it didn't
43:16
last long in the catalog.
43:18
And then I think around 1996, it came out on CD on the Carlton Classics label, and that
43:26
was in print for about five seconds.
43:29
It's not easy to find secondhand copies of the physical CD.
43:33
It took me a long, long time before I could find one at a good price.
43:39
But you can get this recording as a download or via streaming services.
43:44
So why do I think that Charles Rosen's Diabelli variations is so special?
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For starters, it was produced by Isabella Walich, and the sound quality reproduces Charles
43:57
Rosen's piano in a realistic concert hall perspective.
44:02
It's not the warmest or most robust sonic representation, perhaps, but Rosen's sense
44:10
of projection and his wide dynamic range and his infinite variety of articulations really
44:18
come across and draw you in.
44:20
He sets the tone for the piece with a very strongly profiled and decisive statement of
44:27
the Diabelli theme.
44:28
And then he takes a long and dramatic pause before he launches into the first variation
44:34
funeral march.
44:36
And Charles Rosen uses a taca linkages not only to effect smooth transitions and to create
44:44
cumulative momentum, but also to subtly highlight shifts in mood and character from variation
44:52
to variation.
44:53
I could spend hours and hours describing all of the felicities of timing and touch and
44:59
nuance that you get from Charles Rosen.
45:02
For example, listen to his slight rhythmic elongations and dynamic shadings that bring
45:08
out variation five's underlying tension.
45:12
Or how in variation eight, the arching melodic line just sings out so naturally without any
45:19
affectation, totally from the heart.
45:22
And then I keep talking about variation 10 and those rapid broken chords between the
45:28
hands.
45:29
They are so agile in Charles Rosen's hands, but they don't sound mechanical because you
45:34
have shape and you have direction, and it's not an etude.
45:39
So the way that Charles Rosen delays certain downbeats in that number 13, I was talking
45:45
about the bum ba dum, bum bum, bum ba dum, bum bum, bum bum, bum bum, bum bum, bum bum,
45:53
so on and so forth.
45:54
You know what I'm talking about.
45:56
The way he delays certain downbeats in number 13 exemplifies an understanding of comic timing
46:03
that few other pianists have mustered, for instance, like Rosen would do, bum ba dum,
46:11
bum bum, bum ba dum, bum bum, where he delays that bum bum, the answer just a little bit.
46:20
And I remember when he played this variation in concert, he elicited laughter from the
46:26
audience and that's exactly what is supposed to happen.
46:31
And also, Rosen's contrapuntal awareness is second to none, yet it's never obvious or
46:38
overstated, whether it's in the majestic repose he brings to number 24's Fugetta or the vehemence,
46:48
yet the mindful voicing of the fugue of variation 32.
46:55
And from the fugue, Charles Rosen makes the most beautiful and touching transition into
47:02
the concluding minueto.
47:04
I heard Charles Rosen play the D Bellies in concert back in 2002 at the 92nd Street Y,
47:12
and at that time I had not heard this recording, but I was totally enraptured and spellbound
47:19
by his performance, which actually followed a first concert half where he played several
47:25
Beethoven sonatas not very well at all.
47:29
And I seriously considered walking out of the concert, but my friend, the late record
47:35
producer Max Wilcox, who was sitting in front of me, you know, I told him that I didn't
47:41
think I was going to stick around for the second half and he said, no, no, no, Jed,
47:45
you have to stay to hear Charles Rosen play the D Belly variations.
47:49
Trust me, you're never going to hear them played better.
47:53
And I'm not going to say no to Max.
47:56
And my God, Max Wilcox was totally right.
48:00
And actually, it was a few years later when I had to review the Paul Lewis recording for
48:06
Gramophone, I happened to be visiting my closest friend among pianists, Jerry Kuderna, who
48:13
lives out in Berkeley, California.
48:16
And we were listening together and making comments and thinking, well, this is good.
48:22
This is not so good and so on and so forth.
48:25
And then Jerry brought out his LP copy of the Charles Rosen D Belly's and he put it
48:31
on and goodness, you know, there was just no comparison.
48:36
We sat there and thought, come on, this is the big league here.
48:40
And I had not heard that recording before, but it triggered my memory of hearing Charles
48:45
Rosen play the D Belly's in concert a few years back.
48:50
And then sure enough, a few months later, when I was back in New York, I did find a
48:55
secondhand copy of the D Belly variations on CD.
49:00
I think I paid two dollars for it or something.
49:02
It doesn't really matter.
49:04
I would have been happy to have paid a lot more money.
49:08
So there we have it.
49:11
A deep dive into the D Belly variations.
49:14
God, I'm exhausted after talking about this.
49:18
I hope you haven't been exhausted listening to my ranting about all of this.
49:24
And I recommended 15 recordings and a few extras not to be recommended.
49:30
I'm sure you have some special favorite D Belly variations recordings that I didn't mention.
49:37
I'd love to know what they are.
49:39
And I'm sure I do know what they are.
49:41
Of course, Rudolph Serkin and Claudio Arrao.
49:46
Maybe some of you will talk about Daniel Barenboim.
49:49
I'm sure there's so many others.
49:52
But get in touch with me and let me know which D Belly variations recordings you like.
49:57
I really value your feedback and your comments.
50:01
This is Jed Disler and you've been listening to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast
50:07
guide to piano recordings.
50:10
And thank you for accompanying me on this Beethoven journey all of this month.
50:17
And we will be back to a lot of non-Beethoven topics in our upcoming episodes.
50:24
Of course, we will get back to Beethoven.
50:26
How can we not?
50:28
But thank you so much for considering a subscription to the Piano Maven podcast.
50:35
And I look forward to being with you next time.
50:39
Until then, take care, be well, and most importantly, be kind to one another.