Beethoven: Diabelli Variations

Featuring

Filippo Gorini
Ludwig van Beethoven

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Recording & Production

This album was recorded from January 31 to February 3, 2017, at Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, Germany, with Ken Yoshida as the recording producer, editor, and mastering engineer.

Composition History

Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, completed and published in 1823, are often compared to Bach's Goldberg Variations for their originality, mastery, and size.

Compositional Technique

Beethoven's approach to the theme in the Diabelli Variations is audacious, often maintaining only the most basic structural elements, and the work can be divided into four large arcs.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Beethoven's Diabelli Variations explore human nature through diverse and traditionally incompatible modes of expression, ranging from dance to frenzy, and mockery to contemplation.

Composer Biography

While composing the Diabelli Variations, Beethoven also created masterpieces like his last three piano sonatas and the Missa Solemnis, and was about to finish his Ninth Symphony.

Compositional Technique

The Diabelli Variations are structured directionally, leading from the mundane theme to a 'celestial minuet', unlike Bach's Goldberg Variations which restate the Aria at the end.

Composition History

Anton Diabelli, a composer, publisher, and copyist, initially asked Viennese musicians to contribute one variation each on his theme, but Beethoven instead composed a monumental cycle of 33 variations.