BEETHOVEN Diabelli Variations / May Phang / CD Review

BEETHOVEN Diabelli Variations

MAY PHANG, Piano

Centaur CRC 3882

TT: 62’45”

 

It had to be recorded sometime by a Singaporean, and that wasn’t Melvyn Tan. The honour goes instead to a former Ong Lip Tat pupil, May Phang who is presently domiciled in Greencastle, Indiana where she is a piano professor at DePauw University.

 

The story of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations is worth repeating. The publisher Anton Diabelli had written a waltz-like ditty in 1819 and invited the Who’s Who of Vienna’s musical society to contribute a variation each. People who responded included Czerny, Hummel, Schubert, the pre-teen Liszt and many others who have long been forgotten. The irascible Beethoven dismissed the idea out of hand but later changed his mind by writing 33 variations including a terrific fugue near the end. His masterpiece, completed in 1823, is to the early Romantic era what J.S.Bach’s Goldberg Variations was to the Baroque.

 

Running over an hour, Phang’s interpretation is one of the most expansive in the catalogue. Most performances take between 50 to 53 minutes (Richter at 50’, Staier at 51’, Brendel and Paul Lewis at 52’, and Igor Levit at 53’) although there are some outliers (Anda sprints at 38’ but does not observe all repeats, while Richter-Haaser jogs at 47’). The venerated Claudio Arrau clocks in at 55’, but that’s still seven minutes short of Phang.

 

Hers is at the other end of the spectrum, where the likes of Anatol Ugorsky (61’ on Deutsche Grammophon) and most famously Piotr Anderszewski (63’ on Virgin Classics) habitate. The expansiveness comes mostly in the slow variations (notably Nos.14, 20, 24 or Fughetta, 29 through to the end save the busy fugue of No.32). Beethoven is at his most sober in No.31’s Largo, molto espressivo, which is positively dreamy and almost improvisatory at a leisurely pace. Phang takes 5’24”, Ugorski 6’02” while Anderszewski tops it at 6’33”, all of whom play repeats.

 

It is the Tempo di Minuetto (No.33), the worthy final peroration where Beethoven adds the directive moderato ma non tirarsi dietro / aber nicht schleppend (moderate but do not drag). Here, Phang really takes her time at 5’16” compared with Ugorski’s 5’06” and Anderszewski’s surprisingly short-winded 3’52”. And yet it does not feel she is dragging.

    

Playing this disc repeatedly has been a pleasure, and nowhere does Phang’s view of the work’s architecture and inherent longeurs come across as protracted, nor is there deliberate slowness for profundity’s sake. Her technique stands up well to scrutiny, and she more than copes with Beethoven’s quixotic moods shifts and razor-sharp wit, which make this journey well worth making. The recorded sound is richly resonant but not over-bright. Beethoven has been well served, and listeners (Singaporeans or otherwise) will not be disappointed.

 

 

May Phang’s Centaur recording of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations is available online at:

 

Physical album at Arkiv Music:

https://www.arkivmusic.com/products/beethoven-diabelli-variations-phang-863786 

Digital album download at: iTunes and Amazon

Online streaming at: Spotify and Apple Music