Among the 13 sets of variations for solo piano by Beethoven on this two discs set, only three of them are even reasonably well known and the rest might as well come from the dark side of the moon as far as even the most dedicated of Beethoven lovers are concerned. Pretty much everybody has heard of Beethoven's Variations on "God Save the King" and "Rule Britannia" and folks who frequent piano recitals will sooner or later have bumped into his rambunctious and unbuttoned Variations on an original theme in C minor. But the ...
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Among the 13 sets of variations for solo piano by Beethoven on this two discs set, only three of them are even reasonably well known and the rest might as well come from the dark side of the moon as far as even the most dedicated of Beethoven lovers are concerned. Pretty much everybody has heard of Beethoven's Variations on "God Save the King" and "Rule Britannia" and folks who frequent piano recitals will sooner or later have bumped into his rambunctious and unbuttoned Variations on an original theme in C minor. But the rest of the variations here remain at the outer reaches of the pianist's repertoire: too recherché for all but the specialist pianists and too virtuosic for all but the best pianists. Enter John Ogdon. Although three of the variations were recorded in 1968 by the magisterial Emil Gilels, the other ten were recorded in November 1969 by John Ogdon, the brilliant English virtuoso who championed Busoni's Promethean Piano Concerto and the Lucifer Suite of Nielsen. Ogdon's...
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