Diabelli Variations
ASV Gold
This version of Beethoven’s amazing monument to his own ingenuity — 32 different shades of music squeezed from a cheap little waltz — isn’t helped by a close recording in cloudy sound, though the chief drawback remains Demidenko’s interpretation. He savours the slow variations to excess, and his individualistic emphases and phrasings are often more skittish than revelatory. A pity: Demidenko’s talent is huge.
GEOFF BROWN