Monday, November 22, 2010

11/22 32 Variations (in C minor) on an Original Theme WoO.80

(A page from the 1st Edition of WoO 80)
When Beethoven performed live he is often described as being given a theme upon which he would improvise variations on for up to an hour.  Here he does 32 variations in about 10 minutes.  Much later he did 33 variations on a theme by Diabelli and more or less thrust piano music into the 21st century, but here it's a bit more show-offy - and maybe a bit more fun?
This is a performance by Ivan Moravec which I'm pretty fond of.  I annotated the variations with some assistance from Wikipedia...

32 Variations (in C minor) on an Original Theme WoO.80 (1806)

I posted a performance of Glenn Gould doing a somewhat more leisurely performance here.
Additional analysis here.
Wikipedia entry here.

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