Rediscovering Diabelli

[dirkronk]

Last night I was doing some work in my home office and decided to put on an LP as "background" music. The selection: Beethoven's Diabelli Variations in the early version on Vox Turnabout by Alfred Brendel. I kept the volume moderate, so while I was occasionally drawn to the playing by one passage or another, there was seldom anything that intruded on my tasks. I have little but praise for the playing, and the presentation is really well integrated and coherent--plus, this is one of the few Turnabouts that I own in a European pressing, which (unlike too many American-pressed originals) is wonderfully silent-surfaced. In short, a good listen.

However...

After listening through the entire piece (both sides of the LP), I decided to listen to a few minutes of a different version, one I hadn't heard in years, done by Webster Aitken. HOLY MOLY!!! Talk about a horse of a different color. Wildly different...in fact, my first thought was "bring home the CD of Yudina and various Richter performances and do a comparison with this one." Aitken ratchets up the nervous tension, attacks the keyboard with extraordinary power yet with obvious things to say with the phrasing. I didn't have time to listen all the way through, so I don't know that I would have a positive feeling about the entire performance, but it did serve to remind me afresh that the same piece of music can often yield very different types of felicities in the hands of different artists.

So...anyone want to share their own favorite renditions of this piece? Or perhaps share their own similar experience of "very different but both satisfying" reactions to another piece of music?

Dirk

[Don]

Anderszewski's recording on Virgin Classics is my favorite; it's a very distinctive reading far from the mainstream.  Other favored versions include Richter/1986, Richter/1970, Brendel/Philips, Mustonen, Barenboim, Pollini and Sokolov.  The Mustonen is probably the most unique of the bunch - the lean quality of his textures is quite startling although a hit or miss affair.

[uffeviking]

Bruno Monsaingeon made an exciting film of Anderszewski playing the Diabellis. One would think it boring to watch one person playing a piano solo piece, especially Anderszewski, a very physically controlled pianist, but I have observed him more than once and will again.

Monsaingeon also demonstrated his mastery in producing great films of a pianist with his film of Grigory Sokolov playing Beethoven, Komitas and Prokofiev, but not the Diabelli; that I have on CD and like it best.

Yes, Olli Mustonen is quite a surprise, but also enjoyable to hear.