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Beethoven: Diabelli Variations / John O'Conor

Release Date: 10/14/2016
Label: Steinway & Sons Catalog #: 30054
Composer:  Ludwig van Beethoven Performer:  John O'Conor

On this release, John O'Conor features what he does best, Beethoven. O'Conor is known by some as a pianist who is carrying on the legacy of Wilhelm Kampff, having recorded the complete Beethoven Sonatas and Concertos. "This artist has the kind of flawless touch that makes an audience gasp" - Washington Post

Album Credits:
 Recorded September 28-30, 2015 at Sono Luminus Studios, Boyce, Virginia.
Producer: Dan Merceruio
Engineer: Daniel Shores
Executive Producer: Jon Feidner
Design: Cover to Cover Design: Anilda Carrasquillo
Production Assistant: Robert Hillinck
Cover Photo: Hugh O'Conor
Piano Technician: John Veitch
Piano: Steinway Model D #590904 Read more (New York)

Reviews:
Ludwig van Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, Op. 120 was his greatest masterpiece for the piano, and its 33 variations on a simple waltz transcended the extraordinary keyboard works that preceded it, including his other sets of variations, bagatelles, and the 32 piano sonatas. Composed between 1819 and 1823, contemporaneously with the Missa Solemnis, it was published as the first volume of Anton Diabelli's Vaterländischer Künstlerverein. Diabelli had asked the leading composers of Europe to compose a single variation on his original theme, and he collected examples from Carl Czerny, Franz Schubert, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Ignaz Moscheles, a young Franz Liszt, Franz Xaver Mozart, and Archduke Rudolf of Austria, among many others, but Beethoven's monumental contribution exceeded them all. The Diabelli Variations are regarded as a summation of Beethoven's methods of composition, and it requires an experienced pianist to communicate its myriad connections to all that went before, perhaps most significantly to the late piano sonatas, which it most closely resembles in tone, breadth, inventiveness, spiritual depth, and emotional impact. John O'Conor's 2016 release for Steinway & Sons offers a spontaneous and fluid performance that ranges in expression from humorous and mercurial in the early variations, to profound and awe-inspiring from the midpoint on, and he displays a fine balance between vigorous virtuosity and sublime restraint. Steinway & Sons provide clean and crisp sound, so all the details and nuances in O'Conor's sensitive playing are easily heard. Highly recommended, especially for fans of this amazing piece.

-- All Music Guide

"Steinway has supplied a recording of resplendent sound for their instrument. O'Conor is apparently not interested in contributing just another recording to the many now available. From the very start he shows mastery with his subtle handling of subito piano and as much color as possible from his instrument. Every variation is given a character of his own, yet the structure builds without any self-conscious interpretive impositions. In addition, he brings great expressivity to the more lyrical variations and makes spare use of the pedal."

-- American Record Guide [5/2017]
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