Friedrich Gulda Diabelli Variations

The Austrian composer, piano teacher and music publisher Anton Diabelli (1781-1858) is known in his own right today as the creator of a number of piano sonatinas for two and four hands. These are often favoured, and justly so, for teaching purposes, but they represent only a fraction of his complete works, most of which have been forgotten. Diabelli achieved true immortality as the composer of the famous waltz which Ludwig van Beethoven used as the starting point and basis for his op. 120. Friedrich Gulda, the interpreter of the Diabelli Variations on this recording, was born in Vienna in 1930, studied with Seidlhofer and was an international celebrity at the age of twenty. His repertoire includes piano works from every . age and his concert tours have taken him all over the world. Gulda is a universal pianist who masters the most difficult pieces in piano Iiterature and is never known to give a mediochre performance, whether of Bach, Debussy, Beethoven or of his own jazz pieces.