Beethoven's Diabelli Variations (Studies in Musical Genesis and Structure) - Tapa blanda

one of the best monographs a musical masterpiece has ever received (Alfred Brendel)

masterly insight ... set new standards of applying language to the service of historical musical analysis. A most distinguished volume from what promises to be an excellent series. (Matthew Koumis, Piano Journal)

Beethoven's Thirty-Three Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, his longest and most complex piece for piano, stands beside the Ninth Symphony, the Missa Solemnis, and the late quartets as one of the monumental achievements of his last period. In this first extended study of these variations, William Kinderman investigates their compositional origins and explores them in the context of Beethovn's other works of this time. Kinderman shows how the composer tramsforms, parodies, and ultimately transcends Diabelli's commonplace waltz in a fascinating series of historical allusions to other composers in the final variations. Kinderman's discussion provides considerable insight into Beethoven's working methods and illuminates the structure of the finished work, and ultimately the nature of the creative process itself. This new reissue of Kinderman's classic text includes a free CD of his celebrated recording of the Diabelli Variations, described by Andras Schiff as 'a very vivid sounding experience'.