About a month ago, Deryk Barker spoke highly of a version performed by
William Kinderman on Hyperion.  I bought this version based on Deryk's
recommendation and would like to provide my thoughts on the performance
and the work itself.

Beethoven's Diabelli Variations is, imho, one of the greatest masterpieces
in the classical music repertoire.  He was provided a "nothing" tune,
asked to compose one variation for it, and ended up with 33 variations.
But his variations were not of the usual variety.  They were mathematically
developed and represent a Beethoven musical language of his own.  This work
is on the same highly creative level as the late string quartets and piano
sonatas.

With a successful performance of the Diabelli Variations I just keep
thinking "WOW" to myself, as I have a hard time realizing that an actual
human with flaws could write such outstanding music.

Did Kinderman "wow" me? He certainly did, from early on in the performance
through the conclusion of the variations.  Kinderman could be thought of as
a Brendel type of performer - the brain always shines through.  This type
of interpretation might not fully display the humor of the work, but that's
just the way I want it.  I found Kinderman particularly superb in those
variations which are fast but relatively soft in volume - he creates a
sound world that I was completely immersed in.

Just one note of a problem.  The recorded sound is good but a little
lacking in "air".  More significant, at the loudest passages there is a
tendency for the piano sound to become "ferocious".  Although I was able to
mitigate this impact, that process produced other less than sterling sound
results, so I decided to go with "ferocious".  It wasn't all that big a
deal, but I thought you should be aware of it.

Don's Conclusion:  Regardless of how many fine versions you have of this
work, Kinderman's is a must-buy.  The catalog number is 66763.  I was so
pleased to listen to this disc last night - turned a bad day into a winner.

Don Satz
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