Beethoven: Diabelli Variations [Import]

Ludwig van Beethoven (Composer), Alfred Brendel (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Alfred Brendel
• Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
• Audio CD (January 26, 1990)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Philips Import
• ASIN: B00000412C
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #214,229 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The greatest Beethoven pianist of all time..., January 5, 2007

By 

R. Taubenberger (Bellevue, Nebraska United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beethoven: Diabelli Variations (Audio CD)

An excellent rendition and reading of the "Diabelli Variations" by (in my opinion) the best pianist of LvB's compositions for solo piano. If you are looking into anything of LvB's for solo piano, I highly recommend Alfred Brendel for any of them.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brendel is a master of this thorny score, and his third recording is among the most appealing, October 28, 2010

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Beethoven: Diabelli Variations (Audio CD)

You know that a reviewer has gone bonkers when he says (as the Gramophone reviewer did in 1990) that the pauses between the Diabelli variations are "a source of wonder." Gosh, imagine how overwhelming it must be when Brendel actually plays notes. This studio recording form 1988 was his third, following a 1968 recording on Vox, made at a time before the pianist was picked up by major labels, even though he was already 37, with a sizable international reputation. The second recording, a live one from 1976, seems to be the favorite among Brendel fanciers for its improvisatory quality and powerful approach. Although Brendel produces a big tone, he avoids the pedal; therefore, even the fawning Gramophone concedes that on records his tone "can easily be made to sound pinched, or above a certain dynamic level, metallic." Non-fans would go farther and use words like sterile, brittle, and clinical.

Here we get a studio recording from 1988 that reveals something even non-fans must admit: Brendel has the measure of the Bidabellis. He doesn't attempt to dramatize each variation by giving it its own character -- this is a consistent world, or as consistent as these baffling, tumultuous variations can be. for maximum drama, to the point of being nerve-racking, one must turn to Richter, who all but destroys the piano from the initial statement of Diaballi's trivial, almost brainless waltz tune. Because he has a probing intellect, Brendel can unravel the thorny tangle of this very long, very intractable work. And since his tendency is to view this as essentially comic music, he scales back the towering ambitions of, say, Serkin or Pollini. His Diabellis are easier to take in one stretch, something he has in common with Kovacevich in his two recordings.

I can't speak of this recording with presumed expertise because I don't have any. I'm not that comfortable in the inhospitable landscape of this music. Still, my favored recording is probably Brendel's very first, and much of its sparkle and panache is available here, in better sound and on a better piano.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars himself, May 23, 2007

By 

stephen sittler (oak lawn, il United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Beethoven: Diabelli Variations (Audio CD)

Late Beethoven, a little surly, especially with the insipid theme he's been given, so dissects it down to its bones and rebuilds it the way it should have been. There's a monster inside it! And Brendel has his measure! A desert island recording.