“Diabelli was overwhelmed by the work submitted by Beethoven which quite overshadowed anything else sent by others. He pronounced it ‘a work to set alongside J S Bach’s masterpiece’ (Goldberg Variations) and he must have been exceptionally gratified that his otherwise ordinary waltz tune would survive in perpetuity as a result of Beethoven’s efforts (indeed it has been considered by the greatest living interpreter of Beethoven’s piano works, Alfred Brendel, to be ‘the greatest of them’). It is certainly the longest of his piano works and predictably covers every emotion” © James Murray
Beethoven: 33 Variations on a Waltz
