Ludwig van Beethoven Edmund Battersby - Beethoven Diabelli Variations (66 tracks) +Album Reviews

So nice to have

Steven Guy | Croydon, South Australia | 10/04/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I bought this disc for the fortepiano rendition of the Diabelli Variations and I recommend this recording to all. Mr. Battersby's recording on a copy of a Konrad Graf fortepiano is one that I will be listening to and enjoying for many years to come. The music is played with great passion and verve.

I must confess that I am far less interested in the second CD which features Mr. Battersby playing the same work on a modern Steinway piano. I would have preferred a second disc containing more of Beethoven's piano works played on the Graf instrument - perhaps one of the late sonatas?

However, many will find the comparison interesting. Perhaps lovers of the HIP approach will regard the second disc as proof that the authentic instrument sounds better and those who scorn the period instrument approach will dutifully ignore the fortepiano disc?

The fortepiano disc is so good that I am tempted to give away the Steinway disc.

As far as I know, this is the only recording of the Diabelli Variations on a fortepiano.

Bravo, Naxos! And thank you so much, Mr. Battersby!

I hope this fine [forte]pianist makes many more recordings of Beethoven's music for Naxos in the future."

Battersby's Diabelli

Donald Mintz | 09/16/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First a disclosure. Edmund Battersby and I have been good friends for decades. However, it does not follow that I like everything he does.

I do like the Diabelli recording--very much in fact. It seems to me that it is a stunning acheivement both technically and musically. In particular: the relationship between drive and relaxation is supremely well brought out. Are there things I would do differently if I were able to play this piece (which I most definitely am not)? Yes, of coursse. No one with any knowledge of and feeling for a piece like this will agree with every aspect of any performance.

No matter. What you hear on this recording is exemplary and exciting (not necessarily the same thing), quite apart from the obvious interest of hearing the piece on both a modern and a contemporaneous instrument. Hence five stars.

Donald Mintz

Prof emeritus of music history

Montclair (NJ) State University"

Not the first, but the only one currently available.

Scratcher | UK | 07/23/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"[Originally posted July 2006] This is not the first commercial recording of the Diabellis played on a fortepiano to be issued, but since that by Jörg Demus, on Archiv, was in the LP era, and has not been re-issued on CD yet, it is the only recording on such an instrument available, (funnily enough, Demus used a Graf from around the same time as that copied by R.J. Regier and used by Mr. Battersby). The two performances (Battersby's and Demus's) are very different, but each throws illumination on a work which has become somewhat encrusted with a patina associated with the modern grand piano. As others have, I find the performance on the fortepiano much the more interesting of the two offered by Edmund Battersby. Would that the Demus was also available for a different view, but Battersby's is well worth getting, to my ears.

[Update April 2007] - I now find there is a very fine CD of the Diabellis, coupled with the Op. 126 Bagatelles, played by Paul Komen (1824 Graf) on the Ars Musici label (AM 1382-2). I find it supperior in just about every respect, but would still recommend Battersby if cost is an important factor."

The 'Diabelli Variations' on a Graf Fortepiano Replica and a

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 08/22/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

""The climax in the history of variations dates from the moment when Beethoven was just about to begin his Ninth Symphony, and received from A. Diabelli a waltz which that publisher was sending round to all the musicians in Austria..."

-- Donald Francis Tovey, in his essay on Variations in 'The Forms of Music'

Along with Bach's 'Goldberg Variations', Beethoven's 'Variations on a Theme by Anton Diabelli' are considered the high-water marks of keyboard variations, and the set has received many wonderful recordings. In preparation for this review I found myself listening, with great pleasure, to all or parts of recordings by upwards of a dozen master pianists of the last century, including Artur Schnabel, Rudolf Serkin, Claudio Arrau, Alfred Brendel, Maria Yudina, Sviatoslav Richter, Michael Oelbaum, Piotr Anderszewski and others. The occasion was this new release of two performances of the 'Diabelli Variations' by an American pianist, a professor at the highly-regarded School of Music at the University of Indiana, Edmund Battersby. What makes this release more interesting is that Battersby has recorded it both on a modern Steinway grand and on a modern replica of the last piano Beethoven owned, a wooden-framed fortepiano made in the 1820s by Austrian piano manufacturer, Conrad Graf. The replica was made in 1997 by R. J. Regier of Freeport, Maine, and is tuned at A430 in 'Tuner's Guide No. 3' temperament, 'chosen because it was not jarringly different from equal temperament but retains some of the coloration that well temperament bestows.'

The performance on the Steinway Grand is more or less in the mainstream of recorded performances. Battersby's technique is fully equal to the gargantuan demands of the set, and his playing is cleanly articulated and lightly pedaled. There is some occasional tempo instability and I must confess my overall reaction to his interpretation is that he doesn't bring anything particularly new or insightful to the music and thus is somewhat predictable. This performance would not be my first choice, by any means, but it is also quite acceptable. By far the greatest interest here is the performance on the fortepiano.

There have been other recordings on fortepiano, none of which I've heard. There apparently exists a recording made by Peter Komen on Beethoven's own Graf which has been restored and currently resides in Beethovenhaus in Bonn. Consequently I cannot comment on this recording vis-à-vis the others available. I found the Graf recording much more interesting than that of the Steinway, at least partly because I was intrigued by the sound of the instrument. I have not generally been terribly fond of other fortepiano recordings I've heard and I have not particularly sought them out. There is, however, a gentle piquancy to both the tone and the tuning of this piano (the latter courtesy of piano technician Rob Loomis) that brought me back with delight to this traversal. The recorded sound of both performances (made in an auditorium in a school in King City, Ontario) is lifelike and quite clean, with little room ambience.

The bottom line here is that this budget 2CD release will appeal primarily to those who are fond of fortepiano recordings, but probably will not attract those of us who have multiple recordings by great pianists like Arrau (my own favorite), Brendel, Serkin and Richter (another favorite, the live 1986 Amsterdam recording). For anyone curious to hear this work on fortepiano, this issue will not break their pocketbook, always a plus with Naxos releases.

2CDs, TT=1:42:31

Scott Morrison"

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