Beethoven: Diabelli-Variationen op.120 / Paul Lewis – Tonträger neu kaufen

Neuware

53 Min.

2011

CD

120 g

Beethoven: Diabelli Variations / Paul Lewis

Release Date: 06/14/2011
Label: Harmonia Mundi Catalog #: 902071 Spars Code: DDD
Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Performer: Paul Lewis
Number of Discs: 1


Works on This Recording

1. Variations (33) for Piano on a Waltz by Diabelli in C major, Op. 120 by Ludwig van Beethoven
Performer: Paul Lewis (Piano)
Period: Classical
Written: 1819-1823; Vienna, Austria


Notes and Editorial Reviews

BEETHOVEN Diabelli Variations • Paul Lewis (pn) • HARMONIA MUNDI 902071 (52:46)

Here is Paul Lewis's logical wrap-up to his critically acclaimed Beethoven concerto and sonata cycles. Colin Clarke covered the sonatas in Fanfare 31:4, and yours truly covered the concertos in 34:3. Of course, there are still the bagatelles that Lewis might decide to favor us with, but for practical purposes he's likely had his say on Beethoven for now.

The story behind the Diabelli Variations hardly needs retelling. For an astute, enterprising businessman with his eye fixed on the bottom line, Anton Diabelli's motives were remarkably altruistic when in 1819 he solicited 50 well-known composers of the realm to contribute a variation on a waltz theme he provided. The sales proceeds were to go to orphans and widows of the Napoleonic Wars. His mistake—but our good fortune—was to knock on Beethoven's door to enlist him as a donor.

One can only imagine Beethoven's chagrin at being lumped together with the likes of Czerny, Hummel, Moscheles, and Archduke Rudolph, but he shouldn't have been so quick to sneer. If you enter filesmap.com/mp3/32S/archduke-rudolph-diabelli-variation-xl in your Internet browser, you can listen to the Archduke's contribution, Variation No. 40. He took his assignment very seriously, writing an almost three-minute piece, the heart of which is a quite impressive Bach-like fugal episode. But no matter, Beethoven determined to go it alone, and the result, as we all know, was a variations-based work equaled in the annals of music history only by Bach's Goldberg Variations . Through a process of deconstruction and reconstruction, Beethoven takes Diabelli's trifling theme and makes of it something transcendental.

It has been seven years now since a DVD performance of the Diabelli Variations by Piotr Anderszewski thoroughly captivated me in 28:2. Since then, a couple of other versions have come my way—one by Edmund Battersby in 29:3 and another by Daniel Shapiro in 30:4—but I keep coming back to Anderszewski for clarity and insight. Maybe it's the visual component that helps illuminate the piece for me. That same performance is available on a standard audio-only Virgin Classics CD for those who prefer to just listen. Though I haven't heard it, Ashkenazy's 2007 recording—surprisingly his first ever of the Diabelli Variations —was highly praised by Lynn René Bayley in 32:2, but among others I do know and hold in high regard are Claudio Arrau's 1985 Philips recording, Brendel's 1988 recording, also for Philips, and Pollini's 1998 Deutsche Grammophon recording.

Pianistically, Lewis's Diabelli is mightily impressive. Oddly, neither the instrument nor the performance venue is cited anywhere in Harmonia Mundi's notes or credits, but the recording has great depth and detail to it. Lewis is, of course, a Brendel disciple, so one would expect the probing insight and lucidity of vision Lewis gained from his teacher, and in these Lewis does not disappoint. But what I particularly enjoy about his reading is that he doesn't over-intellectualize the score or treat it with over-deferential respect. Lewis plays up much of the slapstick humor in the piece, not fearing on account of its being, in hushed, reverential tones, “a great masterpiece,” to give it a few good-natured thumps.

Beethoven worked on the Diabelli Variations on and off between 1819 and 1823, dividing his attention between it and the Missa Solemnis , the last three piano sonatas, the op. 119 set of bagatelles, and completion of the Ninth Symphony. The final string quartets were yet to come between 1823 and 1826. With the exception of some miscellaneous choral pieces, the incidental music to The Ruins of Athens , and the Consecration of the House Overture, Beethoven's output during these years slowed to a comparative trickle, but what he did produce was of surpassing significance.

Lewis's account of the Diabelli Variations , in my opinion, joins the notables mentioned above in an exceptionally fine new recording.

FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

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AllMusic Review by James Manheim [-]
The booklet for this release by British pianist Paul Lewis, a fine complement to his cycle of the 32 Beethoven sonatas, contains various goodies, including an interesting image of the Diabelli Variations' dedicatee, Antonie Brentano (the recipient from Beethoven of one of history's greatest if most despondent love letters), and a rarely cited evaluation of the entire work from its commissioner, Anton Diabelli. Far from being dismayed that he had asked for one variation and gotten back 33, he remarked that the set was fit to be placed beside "Sebastian Bach's masterpieces of the same type." This perceptive comment ought to give the lie to the idea that nobody appreciated Bach in the early 19th century, and it's a key as well to Lewis' reading. A student of Alfred Brendel, Lewis has by now emerged from under that master's shadow; his interpretation here takes off from Brendel's emphasis on Beethoven's immediate and dramatic departure from Diabelli's theme but forges from it a big, sharply differentiated reading quite unlike Brendel's dry, subtle playing. Lewis' first few variations give him a lot of space, and he fills it in with variations that diverge greatly in tempo and approach yet hold together in larger structures. The middle variations are stretched out a bit, and Lewis seems to get to the truly unthinkable quality of the harmonies in the slow variation 20 as well as anyone ever has. Perhaps in order to tie together the distinct worlds of his variations, Lewis plays them with little (or in some cases no) pause between them. This is not a completely solid move, but it works convincingly in this interpretation, which is daring, well thought out, and somehow very Beethovenian. Highly recommended.

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BBC Music MagazineJuly 2011
Lewis has the full measure of the work's epic scale, creating a real sense of cumulative growth as he navigates us through its extraordinary narrative...Unashamedly exploiting the warmth and power of the modern piano, Lewis marshals a wide dynamic range and employs a considerable variety of touch and timbre...[and] draws particular attention to the radical, almost modernistic nature of Beethoven's writing.
*****

Classic FM MagazineJuly 2011
Lewis tells us that the Diabellis are a set of variations like no other. He romps through the opening theme, Beethoven's 'sfz' left-hand asides articulated like raucous, tailgating trombones. Individual variations are masterfully controlled...but Lewis's concept of the whole - how Beethoven seeds ideas that blossom later - makes this performance especially cogent and satisfying.
****

Sunday Times12th June 2011
Nothing in music is more exhilarating than a good performance of the Diabelli Variations, and this one is exceptionally good — torrential but controlled, and intensely lyrical. Never has Beethoven's monument to creative invention seemed less forbidding. In Lewis's hands, it gives the sense — despite all its intellectual mastery — of being like a gigantic piece of improvisation...The disc is a delight.
****

The Telegraph2nd June 2011
The playing possesses all the dynamism and discretion, the insight and immediacy, that Lewis poured into that grand project of encompassing all 32 of the sonatas, and is essential listening...[Lewis] is a master of characterisation, pointing up Beethoven's inventiveness as well as his architectural acumen, and playing with palpable concentration and, in the slower variations, with sublime intensity.
*****

The Times27th May 2011
Lewis's interpretation mixes high drama and poetic aplomb — characteristics of a serious musician, flexing his muscles...Faced with Diabelli's theme, many pianists stay content with a relatively uninflected reading but Lewis colours the notes with romantic panache, the left-hand bass strongly emphasised, the right-hand fingering almost hurtling, as if he's panting to get to the real meat, the 33 variations.
****

Classical Review 27th June 2011
he is at his considerable best in those variants that promote grandeur, volatile outbursts, and depth of feeling...Lewis's performance is superbly recorded (in Berlin's Teldec Studio), the instrument captured with immediacy, the pianist's dynamic panache and variety of touch faithfully preserved.
Irish Times 24th June 2011
Paul Lewis has the fingers and mind to cope with Beethoven's undertaking, though he does so in a straight-spined way that emphasises earnestness at the expense of good humour and wit.
****

london24.com 17th June 2011
Of the many recordings that Beethoven's exquisite variations have enjoyed over the years, few are as rich in nuance, nimbleness and sheer musical acumen as Paul Lewis' already-celebrated reading, which must now count as definitive.

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Ein großes und wichtiges Meisterwerk
Die im Juni 1823 erschienenen und Antonia Brentano gewidmeten 33 Variationen op. 120 bezeichnete Diabelli selbst als »(...) ein großes und wichtiges Meisterwerk, würdig, den unvergänglichen Schöpfungen der alten Classiker angereiht zu werden (...). Sie werden (...) diesem Werke einen Platz neben Seb. Bachs bekannten Meisterstücken ähnlicher Art anweisen.« Wie der Thomaskantor revolutionierte Beethoven die Gattung, aber in der Weise, dass er sie neuen und überraschenden Bereichen der Bagatelle annäherte.

Rezensionen

,, ... ein sonorer Klavierklang, der wunderbar räumlich und doch genau fokussiert eingefangen wurde, und ein untadeliges Spiel." (audio, September 2011)

FonoForum 09 / 11: "In der Tat ist Lewis eine Wiedergabe von mitschreibereifer Vollkommenheit gelungen. Er hat den Notentext äußerst formbewusst und mit überlegener Pianistik ausgeleuchtet. Da wird kein Ton hörbar, der nicht perfekt "sitzt", nichts bleibt im ungewissen Halbdunkel, nichts wirkt überzogen, aufgesetzt oder auf Effekt getrimmt. Fabelhaft!"

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HMF 902071