MITSUKO UCHIDA
Beethoven: Diabelli Variations
Decca 4852731
In the Diabelli waltz that spawned so much from Beethoven, Mitsuko Uchida can’t seem to decide if it should be treated as a country bumpkin or as a precious artefact. For the 33 Variations that follow (recorded rather too edgily in October last year at the Snape Maltings Concert Hall) she offers a coherent view of Beethoven’s commentaries if sometimes exaggerating dynamics and over-forcing accents, distractingly so. Clarity between the hands is exemplary, however, as is the illusion that this is a ‘real’ performance rather than one built up over five days of studio time, although the piano’s perspective does
