Sonically speaking, as of January 2011 this is the best-engineered period-instrument recording of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. It features what appears to be a well-preserved and vibrantly responsive Viennese Anton Walter 1822 vintage fortepiano that holds its tuning quite well. However, Gary Cooper’s interpretation does not consistently satisfy.
He plays the opening theme too carefully, yet slightly overshoots Variation 1’s Maestoso directive. Cooper’s subtle accentuations create an appropriate “phase shifting” effect throughout Variation 2’s alternating-hands patterns, although Variation 3 drags, and Variation 5’s dotted rhythms could be more impetuous and playful. Variation 11 rarely has sounded so tensionless and prosaic, Variation 13’s slight elongations suffer from poor comic timing, and Variation 18 comes off sounding fragmented and clunky rather than lyrical and graceful.
While Variation 22 (the one based on Mozart’s “Notte e giorno fatica”) is appropriately spirited and brash, Cooper holds back in the subsequent “Bang!….scamper, scamper, scamper” variation. By contrast, Cooper’s tempos and sense of characterization hit home with more success in the Op. 126 Bagatelles. Listen to how he molds No. 5’s seemingly simple melodies so that they float over the barline, and notice his controlled fury in No. 4. Recommended for the Bagatelles, but we still await an unambiguously outstanding period-instrument Diabelli Variations.
