Diane Walsh, pianist: Press

Beethoven 33 Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, Piano Sonata No.24
Diane Walsh (pn) JDR 10006 (77:00)

This recording coincides with Walsh's current (October) Washington D.C. performances of op.120 as part of the Arena Stage's production of Moises Kaufman's play, 33 Variations. Although I have not seen the play, it is not surprising that Walsh won the audition. For more than three decades her performances and recordings of a wide range of repertoire have established her as one of America's most respected pianists. Her best-known solo recording is probably the one devoted to piano works by Barber, Martin, Bartok, and Prokofiev. "A performer of great honesty and integrity…lyrical, contemplative, powerful and very moving" is how a Boston critic once summed up her playing – and all of these qualities, together with a fine sense of Beethovenian humor, are showcased in the present disc. In some of the faster variations she might remind one of the heady approaches of Arthur Schnabel or Rudolph Serkin, and certainly where Beethoven demands vitality and punch – as in variations 23, 17, 28 and especially the exciting triple fugue –she does not hold back for an instant. But generally her tempos are more moderate than theirs, the colors more varied, and the moods more lyrical. In the wonderful slow variations 29–31, she is second to no one in plumbing the depths, with each note and rest given its due and as part of long musical sentences. The brief sonata glows with cheerful easy-going optimism, making it an ideal foil for the Diabelli. In short, a most rewarding disc.

BEETHOVEN: Diabelli Variations; Sonata 24
Diane Walsh, p JDR 1006 66 minutes
Each month brings forth yet another recording or two of Beethoven’s most challenging set of piano variations. Trying to select one for purchase is a little like attempting to exist by consuming just one meal daily. It can be done, but when the tummy starts to growl only digesting another Diabelli makes the embarrassing noises stop.
Walsh establishes her credentials for Diabelli candidacy having won a host of competitions, including the Van Cliburn International. Of greater importance, Diabelli-wise, is her joining the cast of 33 Variations, the title of a new play by Moises Kaufman dealing with Beethoven’s last years and his writing of the Diabelli Variations. She performs on stage during the play.
Listening to this performance one is made aware anew of the composer’s inventive genius and vivid imagination. Only the best interpreters are able to capture that fully, and only the best interpreters are able to convey a sense of rediscovery where others seem to settle into bored complacency. From the very opening statement of the theme, Walsh asserts a liveliness and lightness. Variation 1 is not leaned on as heavily as in many performances and avoids the portentousness that tends to bog down so many pianists. Variations 6 and 10 bring more sparkling delights with outstanding clarity of execution.
The more somber Variations such as the ‘Grave e maestoso’ of Variation 14 and the tragic three variations preceding the ‘Fuga’ of Variation 32 are deeply felt and, coming before the upbeat triple fugue, lend a final catharsis before closing with an elegant and far from simple ‘Tempo di Menuetto’. Above all, Walsh plays the Diabelli as a study in contrasts and yet ties all together as a unified whole. This is not as easy as it sounds; many other pianists have failed to accomplish it. Although you will definitely need this for your collection, performances by Serkin, Demidenkl, Kovacevich, Brendel, and Anderszweski (among others) reach the top rung of the ladder as well.
The two-movement Sonata in F-sharp is a sunny work and makes an excellent foil to the serious monumentality of the Diabelli. Once again Walsh does everything right, at least for this listener. It is the kind of performance that makes one smile and the kind of performance that raises the hope of hearing more Beethoven from this pianist. Add to the mixture the pianist’s interesting notes and some excellent sound from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City, and this becomes a choice recording.

CLIBURN VET SCORES WITH BEETHOVEN RECORDING

Beethoven
Diabelli Variations; Sonata in F-sharp major, Op. 78. Walsh (Jonathan Digital Recordings)

NEW SOURCES: With the once major record companies either moribund or turning out mostly reissues, interesting releases are as likely to be self-produced or issued by cottage-industry labels. Jonathan Digital Recordings is an offshoot of the long-established Jonathan Wentworth artist management. (Web site: www.jona thandigital.com.)

FIRST-CLASS: American pianist Diane Walsh, who took fifth place in the 1969 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, doesn't have the highest-visibility concert career. But this recording of Beethoven's 33 Variations on a Waltz by Anton Diabelli is top-notch. It puts to shame the recent version by that famous pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy.

DELIGHT, LOGIC: Mr. Ashkenazy, on Decca, clicked his way dutifully through the cycle with precious little imagination or expressivity. Ms. Walsh, by contrast, brings plenty of delight, even apt playfulness, to this often witty music. Her tone is bright and crisp, but not too much so. Rounding out the CD is an account of the Op. 78 sonata that perfectly balances formal logic and spontaneity.

BOTTOM LINE: Fresh, rewarding performances, beautifully recorded. More, please!
November 3, 2007

CLASSICAL RECORDINGS
Sonatas and Preludes
Diane Walsh, pianist.
Bridge Records 9151; CD.
SAMUEL BARBER wrote his only piano sonata for Vladimir Horowitz, who gave its premiere in Havana in 1949. Naturally, Barber composed with Horowitz's virtuosic prowess and penchant for rhapsodic Romanticism in mind.
The resourceful pianist Diane Walsh begins her new recording with a dynamic performance of Barber's sonata. By placing this compact 20-minute work in context with major sonatas by Prokofiev and Bartok as well as a set of eight intriguing preludes by the Swiss composer Frank Martin, Ms. Walsh invites listeners to hear it as a formidable modern masterwork. Moreover, while she brings plenty of Romantic sweep and arching lyricism to her performance, her incisive, spiky and, where called for, percussive playing reclaims the work from its neo-Romantic trappings.
The first movement surges forward in this performance, alternating statements of its grimly nervous, dotted-rhythm theme with melancholic lyrical flights. Ms. Walsh makes the short, playful scherzo sound ingeniously intricate by pristinely executing the scampering figurations and maximizing the effect of the constant shifts between duple and triple meter. The slow movement, a lament, is performed with sensitive restraint. And Ms. Walsh brings unflagging stamina and bravura to the finale, an onrushing, stunningly complex fugue with a hellbent coda.

Her performance of Prokofiev's Sonata No. 2 exults in the music's turbulent energy and sarcastic wit. The Martin preludes - pensive, elusive works with loose tonal moorings - are a real discovery. Ms. Walsh gives a fearless account of Bartok's sonata, music that sounds as modern today as it must have at its 1926 premiere. With its pummeling octave passages and thick, finger-twisting chords, this score should carry a stamp from the surgeon general's office warning pianists that playing it could cause injury to the hands. But Ms. Walsh dispatches it with vigor and authority.
October 24, 2004

". . . has already almost all the attributes of greatness. The power and animation in her playing made a great impression. I particularly admired . . . the range and beauty of her tone.

...to each work she brought not only
a lovely tone and immaculate technique, but a deep sense of personal conviction.

"...a performer of great honesty and integrity...lyrical, contemplative, powerful, and very moving.

...Jeffrey Sugg's projections are paired with pianist Diane Walsh's rich performances of [Beethoven's Diabelli] variations....

April 15, 2008

...Most crucially, the "Diabelli Variations" are majestically performed live by pianist Diane Walsh, in an order that has its own lyrical logic. The overall effect is traveling not just to a different time and place but also through the music of the spheres....

Kaufman engages a myriad of ear- and eye-catching devices to illuminate the cross-century currents. Designer Derek McLane frames rotating panels of pinned-up music sheets within a proscenium of shelved archive boxes, with David Lander sending light from unexpected places for a sensuous environment of intellectual mystery and discovery. Pianist Diane Walsh stirringly plays the music in snippets and long excerpts as it's created or discussed.

Jeffrey Sugg projects sheets from Beethoven's actual notebooks onto a screen to Walsh's accompaniment, permitting us to recognize Diabelli's three opening notes (C, A, B-flat) and hear them picked up, expanded and exploited in the various numbered variations as we look over the maestro's shoulder in the ecstatic act of creation.

Diane Walsh performs the variations on a piano, stage right, to near perfection.