Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 03/10/2010, uploaded on 07/25/2010

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

32 Variations in C Minor, WoO 80                            Ludwig van Beethoven

In addition to his thirty-two monumental piano sonatas, Beethoven wrote no fewer than twenty-two sets of variations for solo piano.  Variation sets were an easy way to reach a mass audience; it was common for composers to use popular themes taken from operas, ballets, or folk songs of the day and compose light-hearted variations geared toward the amateur performer.  Although Beethoven often followed this pattern, he sometimes chose to use themes of his own invention.  The "theme" in this case is of a decidedly serious character, consisting of not much more than an eight-bar chord progression with a prominent descending bass line. The thirty-two variations that follow explore various aspects of the theme and its bass line, leading to a work that feels more like a Baroque chaconne than a set of variations.  A short coda fixates on a rhythmic aspect of the theme's seventh bar before cascading C minor octaves lead to a surprisingly hushed conclusion.       Michael Mizrahi

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.