Album: Beethoven et al, Diabelli Variations – Andreas Staier (Harmonia Mundi)

In 1819, Anton Diabelli invited 50 composers to contribute a variation to a composite volume that was to be a snapshot of Viennese musical life.

Each was sent a sheet with the theme and space for their response, though the most famous answer was a set of no less than 33 variations. Andreas Staier prefaces Beethoven's monumental Variations with 11 miniatures. Staier's fortepiano is deliciously transparent, his musicianship revelatory.