Mitsuko Uchida lends pristine playing to Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations

Two imposing sets of variations — Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Beethoven’s Thirty-three Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli — loom like giants over the piano repertoire. Recordings of the Bach have been turning up in all kinds of arrangements, for harp, guitar, accordion and multitudinous combinations of instruments, but the Beethoven has remained the province of the solo pianist.

The Diabelli Variations are a late work. They appeal to performers who have excelled in Beethoven’s late piano sonatas, and Mitsuko Uchida, whose recording of the last three sonatas received lavish praise, is on sure ground.

The 33 variations range widely in tone. Beethoven was dismissive of Diabelli’s chirpy little theme, and some of the lighter variations may be heard as a parody of it, but others are deeply felt and involve complex part-writing, as if in tribute to the great example of Bach before.

Uchida offers pristine playing in an exemplary classical style, clear, authoritative, every note perfectly considered. Her playing is less weighty than Claudio Arrau, less severe than Maurizio Pollini, who is comparable in many ways. More than either, she looks to lighten her touch and find moments, or even whole variations, that are sensitively drawn, as in her gently flowing performance of the tender Variation 8.

Humour is conversely in short supply — Alfred Brendel turns each variation into a witty vignette, starting from the first, which he makes a march for a toy soldier — but Uchida’s profound expressiveness is an ever-rewarding virtue.

★★★★☆

‘Beethoven: Diabelli Variations’ is released by Decca