Piano Variations, Volume I

Variation form occupied Beethoven throughout his composing career. This first volume of G. Henle Publishers’ two-volume edition of all his piano variations includes works from Beethoven’s time in Bonn as well as his early years in Vienna, composed between 1783 and 1799. Beethoven mostly took his themes from arias or songs from stage works that were popular at the time. Besides offering simple figurations around the melodic lines, he also made more radical variations of his chosen material, pointing the way forward to his future “character variations”. The musical text of this Urtext edition has been completely revised on the basis of the critical report of the Beethoven Complete Edition. There is also a detailed preface and commentary.