Beethoven: Variations Diabelli. Schiff.

   in Early Music Today (Sep, 2014)
This double CD enables listeners to enjoy and compare the sound-worlds of two beautiful instruments: a 1921 Bechstein concert grand and a Franz Brodmann fortepiano. Schiff gives a stunning performance of the Variations on the clear, crisp tones of the former, and then delivers a second, more introvert, rendition of the Variations on the Brodmann.

Why record the same piece twice? The CD sleeve notes – which are a delightful highlight of the package and well worth perusing – include a Q&A with Schiff. He states his desire to fight against the ‘globalisation’ of piano music, whereby ‘all composers and pianists sound frighteningly similar’ on their ubiquitous Steinways, and expresses his …