Nabor, William Grant
Transcendental Beethoven
The Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor op. 111 and the Diabelli Variations op. 120 unite the two genres through which Beethoven carried the piano beyond inherited boundaries. In the Sonata the conflict of the first movement is transfigured in the Arietta, where variation and trill propel sound towards dematerialisation. In the thirty-three variations Diabellis modest waltz becomes the substance of a monumental architecture: eight groups, mirror relationships, tensions of tempo and character, a crowning fugue and a final Minuet as a reconciled epilogue. The album thus joins two summits of the late style, in which structural rigour, irony and transcendental vision converge. It also presents the first release of this performance of op. 111, lending the project additional historical significance.