For his Onyx label debut Stephen Kovacevich revisits Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations for the first time on disc in nearly 40 years. His 1969 Philips recording always impressed me for its unflinching technical control and fusion of objectivity and pent-up emotion. However, the pianist’s remake proves no less remarkable, though quite different. He brings more color, dynamic variety, and character to the music now, and is not afraid to take both technical and musical risks to achieve maximum expressive impact, such as a slightly rushing crescendo here, slamming down the sustain pedal there, giving his hands no quarter in pursuit of Variation 28’s relentless rhythmic drive, or cheekily eliding Variation 25’s concluding bar into Variation 26’s opening.
Like Rudolf Serkin, Kovacevich honors Variation 6’s “ma non troppo” and “serioso” directives, but with far more tonal allure. Variation 23 (the one my colleague David Hurwitz affectionately describes as BANG scamperscamperscamper) is joyously assertive and vividly articulated, Variation 13’s “question and answer” patterns are masterfully timed, while the slower, introspective variations reveal new depths of repose and concentration. All of these notable details are just small components of the pianist’s strong sense of large-scale design and cumulative momentum.
Such a persuasive Diabelli Variations performance needs no encore, yet Kovacevich follows it with Bach’s Fourth Partita. In the Overture’s introduction, the Courante, Aria, and Menuet you cannot fault his sophisticated part-playing, clipped, almost jazzy detached articulation, and surgically precise dotted rhythms, yet the results sound edgy, unsettled, and undigested. By contrast, the spacious Allemande and Sarabande are effortlessly grounded and flowing. In all, the Beethoven alone is well worth this disc’s full cost.
