The current release was produced between July 29 and August 3, 2000, at the Auditorio Stelio Molo, RTSI, in Lugano. Bruno Monsaingeon was in charge of filming. As with all such discs, it can be played on your computer (which I find handy for exploring all of the various functions and menu-driven features) as well as in a DVD player connected to a wide-screen TV and state-of-the-art stereo system. The very first thing to appear on the screen is a language option, prompting you to select either the English or French version. Before some wag writes in to ask what effect the choice of language has on Beethoven’s music, let me hasten to add that the language selection pertains to Anderszewski’s comments, observations, and analysis of the piece. A further language option allows you to select English, French, or German for the subtitles. Three audio options allow you to choose between Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1, and PCM Stereo imaging.

We first see and hear Anderszewski playing a piece that sounds vaguely familiar, but it’s not part of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. Anderszewski tells us that it is Schubert’s contribution to Diabelli’s enterprise, a project to invite some 50 prominent Viennese composers each to write a variation on a given theme. Beethoven was but one of Diabelli’s invitees, and as we know he declined, choosing instead to write his own set of variations on the supplied theme.

For the next 20 minutes, divided into six separate tracks, Anderszewski illustrates and discusses various aspects of the work. He admits coming late to this towering masterpiece, and then only through the experience of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, from which he begins a passage on the piano that is then beautifully overlaid in the background by a choral excerpt from the 1966 Klemperer recording. Many of Anderszewski’s observations are quite illuminating, as he dissects Beethoven’s compositional processes. He compares, for example, the aria on which Bach based his Goldberg Variations with Diabelli’s waltz theme, illustrating how the former is an actual melody, whereas the latter is but a string of three or four unconnected cells. But this is the “quintessence of Beethovenism,” Anderszewski reflects, “to take small particles and transform them, transmute them, tear them apart, and torture them. It’s like a long journey,” he concludes, “but one that’s worth the packing.” After all of this, the Diabelli Variations proper begins on Track 7, and continues through Track 40. Track 41 contains a rolling list of credits.

Beethoven’s Sinaitic pronouncement in variations form is in many respects a summation of all his piano sonatas, but especially the final three (ops. 109, 110, and 111). Many of the variations are playful, even comical, which they were meant to be, as Beethoven undoubtedly viewed his own composition as a send-up on the banality of Diabelli’s trivial tune and the absurdity of 50 sous chefs adding ingredients to a pot-au-feu. But humor aside, there is a concentration of contrapuntal writing, rhythmic discontinuities, and melodic and harmonic fragmentation that are a portal to the final string quartets. Only Bach’s Goldberg Variations is precedent for the scope of Beethoven’s Diabelli.

My three long-standing benchmark recordings, each very different, have been Claudio Arrau (1985, Philips), Alfred Brendel (1988, Philips), and Maurizio Pollini (2000, DG). No more. This new performance by Anderszewski is now my favorite. I was totally mesmerized by his playing—the absolute assurance of technique, the depth of expression, and the amazing grace and ease with which he probes and reveals the many secrets locked away in this music. Just one of many examples is Variation 14 (Grave e maestoso) in which the strange and unexpected notes that suddenly alter the harmony in such surprising ways are projected with a laser-like clarity (no pun intended). It doesn’t hurt matters either that Anderszewski is quite the looker. He is exceptionally photogenic, has an upbeat and infectious personality, and is as pleasing to behold as he is to hear. Even if you’re not particularly interested in the video portion of the disc, you can turn your monitor off and just listen. If you care about Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, this is a performance that matters.

Jerry Dubins, FANFARE