Variations (2013)

This is not the first all-variation recital by a leading pianist, but it's a fresh outing by the venerable Emanuel Ax that uses the variation form to explore the innovative currents percolating through some less commonly played works. Beethoven's Variations and Fugue for piano in E flat major, Op. 35, are known as the "Eroica Variations" because they are based on the same two themes that would later appear in the Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 55 ("Eroica"). It's very easy to construct a splashy reading pointing to ... Read More

This is not the first all-variation recital by a leading pianist, but it's a fresh outing by the venerable Emanuel Ax that uses the variation form to explore the innovative currents percolating through some less commonly played works. Beethoven's Variations and Fugue for piano in E flat major, Op. 35, are known as the "Eroica Variations" because they are based on the same two themes that would later appear in the Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 55 ("Eroica"). It's very easy to construct a splashy reading pointing to Beethoven's early career as a virtuoso pianist, and that's what's often been done. Ax, on the other hand, takes the reasonable step of treating the work as a prelude to the "Eroica" symphony, damping down the virtuosity a good deal (of course, he's enough of a virtuoso to get away with that) and bringing the variations together into larger groups. His reading seems almost meditative at first, although it eventually builds in power, and it's quite absorbing. Likewise for the Variations... Read Less