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Diabelli Variations

by Michael Houstoun

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    2017 Classical Artist Award (finalist)
    Presented in a classy hardcover album case

    Includes unlimited streaming of Diabelli Variations via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days
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      $45 NZD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

      $15 NZD  or more

     

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about

Michael Houstoun follows his monumental Beethoven piano sonatas boxed set with a recording of what many believe to be the final word when it comes to solo piano music.

The Diabelli Variations are considered to be among the finest works for solo piano ever written. In his book, "Beethoven: The Last Decade", Martin Cooper writes, "The variety of treatment is almost without parallel, so that the work represents a book of advanced studies in Beethoven's manner of expression and his use of the keyboard, as well as a monumental work in its own right".

There is no doubt that Michael Houstoun is one of the great Beethoven interpreters of the our time, an artist of exceptional skill, perception, and acuity. Beautifully recorded by Rattle's in-house engineer Steve Garden and produced with considerable perception and detail by Kenneth Young, this recording has captured Michael at the peak of his artistic clarity, focus, and insight.

“Fabulous musician-pianist Alfred Brendel calls them the greatest of all piano works, and I have no argument with him. If the wish to compare them with anything arises, then the only candidate can be Bach's immortal Goldberg Variations. But where Bach's masterpiece resides in a universe of some spiritual certainty – contained, adored, and reverenced – the Diabelli Variations threaten all boundaries, seemingly dissatisfied even with transcendence. The sensation of playing them is one of trying to punch holes in the very fabric of the cosmos, to throw light on hitherto overlooked realms of the human spirit.” – Michael Houstoun

credits

released August 1, 2017

Performed by Michael Houstoun (piano)
Produced by Kenneth Young
Engineered by Steve Garden
Designed by UnkleFranc
Artwork by Kim Van Somaren
Printing by Studio Q

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