Diabelli Variations

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Considering the liberties Uri Caine has taken with Bach, Wagner, and Mahler on previous Winter & Winter outings, this reinterpretation of a work by Ludwig von Beethoven is almost staid in comparison. Instead of running delightfully roughshod over the piece - a rather peurile waltz written by a contemporary music publisher and its decidedly more inventive Beethovian variations - Caine chooses to cleave more closely to his accompanying orchestra, the twenty-eight strong Concerto Köln. Though there are indeed passages where Uri, playing a mid-19th century fortepiano, lets down his postmodern hair - peppering his solos with quotes from the rest of Beethoven's œuvre, inserting a little boogie-woogie - the sum total is, given Caine's CV, rather tame. Though no less enjoyable for that.