Austrian concert programme — Hummel, Liszt, Mozart & Schubert

Variations on a Waltz in C major

Theme: Anton Diabelli

Var 4:            Carl Czerny (1791-1857)

Var 16:        Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837)

Var 18:          Frédéric Kalkbrenner (1785-1849)

Var 20:          Joseph Kerzowsky (1791-?)

Var 21:      Conradin Kreutzer (1780-1849)

Var 24: Franz Liszt    (1811-1886) – Allegro

Var 26: Ignatz Moscheles (1794-1870)

Var 31: Johann Peter Pixis (1788-1874)

Var 28: Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (1791-1844)

Var 38: Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

One of the most sucessful of all artistic publicity stunts was initiated in 1819 when Anton Diabelli, who had recently set up the music-publishing company of Cappi and Diabelli, started writing to as many Austrian composers as he could think of to persuade them to submit a variation on a little waltz theme of his own composition with a view to publishing them as an anthology. The invitation had the effect not only of attracting 50 variations from as many different composers but also of getting Beethoven so interested that, although he would have nothing to do with the anthology, he completed one of the greatest of all his piano works, Thirty-Three Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, Op.120. The Beethoven set was published first, in 1823, the anthology a year later.

As the present selection suggests, most of Diabelli’s “composers and virtuosi” were of the latter variety – famous pianists who wrote music mainly to demonstrate their technical prowess in their own concerts. Some variations are more interesting than other, however: Kalkbrenner, for example, conceals his virtuoso energy until it explodes in the middle and Kerzkowsky completely foregoes brilliance for lyricism. Liszt proved remarkably competent for a a boy of 11, Mozart’s son Franz Xaver disappointingly anonymous, Schubert uncommonly inspired in a poignant variation in C minor.