Beethoven: Variations—Angela Hewitt, piano (Hyperion 68346)
So the story goes that at the end of his life Beethoven heard a friend playing his 32 Variations in C minor on an Original Theme (the work that begins this CD), and the composer didn’t recognize it. When told that it was one of his own compositions—now two decades old—the composer said, “That piece of folly mine? Oh, Beethoven, what an ass you were in those days!” As Angela Hewitt says in her engaging program notes for this album, “The composer of the late string quartets was by then a very different person from the one in 1806 when these variations were written (the year of the Fourth Symphony and the Violin Concerto in D Major). And yet it’s a fabulous piece—both to work on and to perform.” Angela Hewitt says she has played Beethoven’s Six Variations in F Major Op 34 since she was 15 years old and has “always held great affection for them. Along with his Op. 35 set [the famous ‘Eroica’ Variations, also on the CD], they were the first works that Beethoven conceived during his time in Heiligenstadt…He was very excited with his new compositions, writing to his publisher…’Usually I have to wait for other people to tell me when I have new ideas, because I never know this myself. But this time—I myself can assure you that in both these works the manner is quite new for me.’” The four other sets of variations on the disc are on someone else’s tunes. Two are based on melodies from an obscure opera by the Italian Giovanni Paisiello and they are ennobled by Beethoven’s attention. Two more themes come from English sources: God Save the King and Thomas Arne’s Rule, Britannia. A delightful addition to the Beethoven 250 festivities!